Canson vs. Arteza vs. Strathmore - Comparing Cheap Watercolor Paper 

This was great! Thank you! (LOVED the Stop Making Mud class!!!)

I went right out after work ans got some Strathmore. Love it. Been practicing strokes for the last hour.

Have been using that Canson XL when I started watercolor painting and I am very happy to realize that I was not the reason why I never achieved the results I was expecting from following tutorials. Problem was the paper!!! 😃

Ahh one more thing. My favorite inexpensive paper.... I've been really happy with Fabriano Studio both hot and cold press when I use gouache. It can handle some wet washes, which I use in my backgrounds. It is a 25% cotton paper and is very resonably priced since you can get it in large packs.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! i'm poor and a beginner so i was really upset at the idea of paying like 5 bucks per project just to experiment with pieces that either i don't want to or simply can't sell. this takes a lot of the pressure off-- i actually had strathmore paper in a starter kit when i was in a class so it's funny it's the best! looks like they knew what they were doing putting those things together!

Thank you for this testing, it's great to know I have been using the best cheap paper for 45 years, lol

Thank you so much. Been looking for something cheap for practice drills. Going to the store after work to get me a pad of strathmore.

Excellent comparison! Would love to see you do something similar with more expensive papers. All the options are overwhelming: cold press, hot press, blocks vs. sheets, natural white vs bright white....oh my!

#1 Strathmore 300 series cold press 24 sheets(9x12) $13.00 Amazon; #2 Arteza premium cold press 32 sheets (9x12) $20.00 Amazon; thank you !

The information you provide is so very useful! I’m totally signing up for your art summit!

Very helpful. Thanks for your efforts. I do love my Arches NOT, though. But for experimenting, will haul out my Strathmore watercolor paper

Thanks for sharing your experience with these watercolor paper possibilities.

Canson gets a bad rap! I think it’s over all a buck a sheet at 18” x 24” yes it’s sensitive. Scratches easy. Spots easy. Lifts wonderfully!!! Surface - soft and satin like. Washes? Requires much practice. For good blends I use water spray spritz. Fresh pigments pre wet. Once area wet/ get to it!!!!! You have two minutes to get it down blend and walk away! It’s a finicky paper. It doesn’t stand up to over washes, scribing and such. I like it’s persnickety ways. Keeps me on my toes. Also it does weird wonderful things as pigments with white mixes get introduced to pure transparent washes but honestly, it’s like no other paper. It’s it’s own beast. And demands it’s respect. I started on it in 2013. Tired of ten and fifteen dollar price gauges per sheet. It held up through out 2013. I’ve never looked back! I’m on it now for ten years! And frankly... love it! I’ve painted over 2,000 paintings on it....sometimes 3 or 4 a day. Is it quirky? Sure is! So was arches! Especially the bad changes done with sizing on the 300 pound series and the whitening or darkening of 140 lb. just my two cents. I use a stiff ox hair fan brush, KingArt brushes, Daniel Smith paints. Warning don’t leave tape on canson longer than a day or two! It will tear. But gotta say - I could never afford my need to create daily if it wasn’t for canson.

Thank you so much for this video! I had to laugh, I used to use Canson XL for watercolor and inkwash projects, but considered it my "trainer" paper because it was so tricky to deal with! (I mostly do wet on dry, illustrative/comics work.) I really like the Blick watercolor blocks, but I'm looking to branch out and try a wider variety. I'm surprised to see how many good reviews there are for the Strathmore; glad to see those positive reviews proven in a visual, thanks to your video. :)

Thanks for a thorough testing!

Your channel is by far the best one when it comes to art and supplies. You make things very clear and concise, and you are great at explaining the concepts behind things. Thank you for taking the time to make this video! :)

Thanks for the great demo! This was really helpful!

Interesting. Thank you for doing this. I guess the answer is, it depends what you want from your paper - and, the watertercolour techniques you use. I'm going to keep this in a reference playlist.

Thank You Art Summits

Thank you so much it was a really helpful analysis 🌟✨

Thank you so much! I was amazed at how "colors" changed on different papers!

Thank you for this information...it's very helpful.

very helpful! Thank you!

thank you so much........this was very helpful

So helpful! Thank you!

This was very helpful!

I have always used Canson, but I do wet on dry, so it’s been good, but I’m now wanting to try different techniques, so maybe will try Arches.

I love canson xl!!!!

Txs very much sincerely José

Daler Rowney mixed media works great!

Thank you for confirming Canson XL sucks for graded washes. I tried over and over without success, can see lines, very bad.

Carson is really good for ink.

I still like Arches Cold Pressed 100% cotton 140 lb. It is expensive but if you search the web instead of buying at the local art store, you usually can save some money.

This is by far the best paper comparison I've seen (and I've seen quite a lot as I'm a newbie). It's a true test of each paper's characteristics because you fill the pages with paint instead of little daubs or splotches of wet on wet. Of the above, I own Strathmore 300 and 400, and, oddly enough, prefer the 300. But I will be testing others to get a feel for them as well. Thank you for this excellent demonstration..

I got a little sad to see Canson's performance next to the others. I'm planning to buy cheaper 100% cotton papers because the popular ones are too expensive, but I want a cheap cellulose paper to do whatever I want with. I think I'll get Canson WC sketchbook and use it like a normal sketchbook. I will say the water-based markers work well on it (I already have a few loose sheets) since the texture is smooth.

Am I the only one that tapes my paper down with Scotch magic tape? (Green one) It works very well. It rarely tears the page and unless you’ve gone overboard with the water it doesn’t leak.

My favorite Watercolor Paper is Arteza Premium. (it's not really cheap though) it's beautiful paper. I also used the Canson and I love the texture of it but you're right it doesn't like a lot of water. I try not to do wet on wet with it but other than that it's great. I honestly hate the Strathmore paper and will never use it again. I had two different kinds of their watercolor paper and it decentigrates while painting. My Arteza Premium paper does great with the tape. The Canson does good but I remove it very slowly and normally don't have any problems.

If you blow the tape with a hot hairdryer ,you can avoid the taring of the paper completely , the heat softens the tape and does not harm the paper, when you remove the tape.

FYI for help with removing tape - either put the tape on your pants before applying it or run a hot gun over the tape before removing it. I thought the Arteza Expert performed the most similar to cotton paper.

Спасибо за обзор! Нефритовый зелёный 766 я бы себе взяла. Интересный.

Strathmore mixed media did it not too bad indeed🤔 I think Canson Illustration paper might be close to it by its prestation. I'm now even more happier I own it, and should try using full watercolor techniques on it, instead of other media. Though I usually prefer using 100% cotton paper, there's something about earlier, cheaper, thinner (190gsm), and a bit yellowish water color paper by Cotman Winsor&Newton, which is unfortunately out of production :( Thanks for the video!✌

Canson XL was my first paper. Not a fan. I still have a lot. Started using it for sketching.

You should have thrown in the god of all sketchbooks, the good ole canson mixed media!

You didn't have a Strathmore 400 watercolor paper, so I wonder if that would have performed better than the 300 watercolor.

Fluid by SpeedBallArts … inexpensive and very good paper

Thank you for the great comparison. For removing tape, using a heat gun or hair dryer first helps to release it from the paper. I use Canson XL sometimes for gouache and get no tearing when I use a heat tool first. I bet it would be the same for any paper that is prone to tearing. One thing I'm curious about is the Strathmore 300 because you mentioned you had an older pad of it lying around that you hadn't used in a while. I also have a few pads of very old Strathmore but I've heard people mention that they may have changed how they make the paper in recent years. I wonder if there would be a difference with the newer pads. I haven't tried the newer stuff becuse I've moved on to cotton papers for my watercolor and prefer a smoother surface for my gouache than the Strathmore has. Anyways, thank you again for the very comprehensive test. It wish I'd found a video like this when I was first starting out. :D

This was great. Could you do one for hotpress paper as well?

When taking up the tape, if you use a hair dryer and heat the tape you will have no problem taking the tape up.

Thank you somuch.. lots of love for you n your work.. m beginner what you suggest?? N m so confused between acrylics n water wht u suggest for a beginner? Thank you

have you tried the Fabriano 1264, I wonder how it compares with the Strathmore 300

I wish you included Strathmore cold press 140 lb series 400 in this comparison.

In my experience, I've had great luck with arteza expert, but also just using amazon for cheaper cotton paper. Even a 50% cotton is better than the wood stuff.

I am just starting with watercolour, I was just wondering what kind of paper could you recommend for use with Karim Brushmarker Pro ?:) Love this Comparison :)

I am not an artist. I buy what I can with my budget. My watercolor paper of choice is Canson. As long it's 140lb, I'm good. If you use mixed media paper, would you gesso it first? .

canson A3 xl i need this but unfortunately it unavailable

The link for that supply file mentioned doesn’t work anymore. Are you able to update it? Thank you.

Is Canson Heritage a good paper option? I've read reviews that is not reliable, sometimes is good and sometimes not.

I'm brazilian, canson XL is already expensive paper for me 😭 it's like, 60BRL, its obscene. The Strathmore is even more expensive, it's like, 150BRL

I knew Strathmore would be the better

On the Arteza site it says their expert paper is 100% cotton.

you tube artists always push arches and talk bad about canson,ive been using canson xl for a few years yes the tape tears ,i lovec the beautifu art i make on canson ,they have been in business 500 years if im correct they must be doing something right ,the only way im buying arches if i decide to sell.

Wish I'd seen this before buying the canson, I'm new to watercolor but I've been studying a lot of videos and was getting frustrated with how my paints were performing on the paper.

Is mixed medis good for poscas?🙏