7 Great Alternatives to Watercolor Paper

Paper, by default, has been the medium of choice for artists working with watercolors. Any meticulously chosen quality watercolor paper can enhance the finish and shelf-life of any artwork. However, there are alternative mediums more suitable for practice or experimentation purposes when you can’t find watercolour paper.

Parchment, Aquabord, rice paper, watercolor canvas, vellum, synthetic paper (Yupo), etc., are solid watercolor paper alternatives. You may use watercolors on wood and even metal treated with the watercolor ground. If you are an amateur, experimenting with different bases would be a great learning experience.

7 Great Alternatives to Watercolor Paper

There’s no substitute for quality watercolor paper or cotton paper. But if you are looking for alternatives, there are quite a few options to challenge your creativity truly. Keep reading to learn more about what those alternatives are and why you need or may have to experiment with your canvas a bit.

Why Should You Look for Watercolor Paper Alternatives?

Quality paper is a must when working with watercolors. You may, however, be tempted to look for alternatives in case:

• The standard watercolor paper is a bit too expensive for casual use or regular practice.
• You wish to experiment with other base materials.

Watercolors can produce impressive results on cheaper/lighter watercolor paper and quite a few other kinds of surfaces.

If you are a novice or a hobbyist, you should first look to hone your painting skills on watercolor paper. Alternative substrates could be explored thereafter to enhance your creativity. 

Quality watercolor supplies, especially watercolor paper, can be quite expensive. Some of the alternatives may be more pricey. But, for education and experience’s sake, the cost factor may have to be overlooked at times.

If cost is still a major concern, several brands of lightweight watercolor paper are available for a cost-effective price. Better yet, you could invest in quality watercolor paper and cut it in half or smaller pieces for regular use. You can also paint on the reverse side.

Parchment

You can use watercolors on parchment, but all colors (especially white) may seem a tad muted due to the naturally warm tone of the substrate. You could, however, work with gouache on parchment to create lively and brighter paintings. 

Parchment is a highly textured surface created from animal (sheep) skin. If that bothers you, you may opt for plant-based parchment variants. Take a look at the Beyond Gourmet Unbleached Parchment Paper if you’d like a recommendation. 

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Please notice that this paper may not be a good fit for oil paint, as the oil is likely to damp everything around.

Rice Paper

Watercolors on this thin, transparent, and absorbent surface can be used to create interesting pieces of art. Often used in Chinese and Japanese ink paintings, rice paper also makes a good replacement for watercolor paper. But you’ll need first to mount/paste the paper on a mat board before you start painting.

Rice paper is usually available in plain and designed variants (with embossed or embedded patterns). Watercolors on rice paper can get exciting as:

• The paper is transparent and the color of the mat board can influence the colors on your painting.
• Designed variants of the paper add a new dimension to your artwork.
• When pasted on the board, even plain rice paper creates fine wrinkles, adding a unique texture.
• You could crumple the paper and smooth it out for a more pronounced texture.
• Watercolors flow and settle along the wrinkles to form ragged edges within and around the subject.
• The rice paper can also be a good match if you would like to mix your watercolor technique with some calligraphy on top of it.

Paste the rice paper on the mat board and leave it to dry overnight before you begin to paint. As the material is delicate, you’ll have to tread lightly! Do remember that this is not like regular paper.

Aquabord

Watercolorists can use Aquabord to create long-lasting, interesting, and captivating works of art. The base panel of this watercolor pad is coated with special mineral-enriched clay. It allows the free flow of water and pigments to create soft finishes. The absorbent surface also lends itself to glazing, making it possible for you to easily stack one layer of damp or wet paint over an underlying dry one without compromising on the luminosity of the colors.

Aquabord is fairly versatile and can support different techniques and materials like gouache paint. As an artist, you would appreciate that. You can also easily remedy common problems such as blooms or permanent staining by lifting the paint off or glazing over the affected areas.

Watercolor Canvas

Canvas has predominantly been an ideal base material for acrylic and oil painting. However, special watercolor canvas and normal canvas, primed with multiple layers of watercolor gesso, have opened up this substrate for watercolors.

However, the watercolor canvas is not as absorbent as watercolor paper, or other textured paper bases, making it quite tricky to add layered washes. You will, therefore, have to adapt your technique to get the desired look and feel. Having said that, there are several benefits to using watercolor canvas:

• As it is less absorbent, you can easily lift or wash off paint to fix any issues.
• You get to use a combination of gouache, acrylic, oil, and watercolors in your work.
• You can preserve the finished piece by applying one or more layers of clear varnish instead of using glass frames.
• The size of your watercolor painting is no longer limited to the standard sizes of watercolor paper.

Light Fabric

You can work with watercolors on thin or light fabric, such as silk or cotton gauze. It could, however, get more challenging to control the bleeding colors, and this will likely also depend on how much cotton fiber the base has. You will have to mix the watercolor with a fabric medium to use it on cloth. Alternatively, you could first use watercolors and brush them over with the fabric medium.

Fabrics support several types of paints. It lets you use watercolors with acrylic to come up with some interesting creations. Fabrics also tend to mute the brightness of watercolors, making sure to work up sufficient contrast to bring out the lighter colors.

Watercolors mixed with fabric medium tend to dry up fast. Use a few drops of a drying time extender so that you have more time on hand. From mixing cups to palettes and brushes, art supplies used for painting may not be reusable. Therefore, h

aving a bit more time on your hand is vital. If you’re unsure what drying time extender to go with, consider the Golden Artist Colors Acrylic Retarder Additive.

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Synthetic Paper

If you are up for an exciting challenge, you may try your hand at watercolors on synthetic paper, aka Yupo (or even parchment paper/baking paper).

Yupo is waterproof in nature, and the paint applied on the smooth surface will stay wet until all the water evaporates. Therefore, do not stack layers of paint on Yupo. If you do so, you may end up removing existing or the underlying paint. Needless to say, give your Yupo-based creation some time before you put it up for display.

There are a few things to do or be wary of when using watercolors on Yupo:

• Prep the surface by rubbing it with alcohol to remove any oil/dust residue on the surface.
• Use watercolor pencils or a colored pencil to draw the image outlines.
• Do not touch the prepared surface as any smudge or rub marks will repel paint.
• The finished piece must be suitably sealed to preserve the artwork.

Yupo sheets are reusable. You can wash away an entire painting and try it all over again if the outcome isn’t satisfactory.

Vellum

Vellum, created from an animal hide (calf), is used to create botanical art. The smooth off-white surface adds a glow and depth to the artwork. The effects are quite realistic, particularly when using watercolor to paint flowers and plants. Instead of the original vellum, which can be fairly pricey, you may opt for paper vellum (plant-based paper) to experiment with watercolors.

Final Words

Watercolors on surfaces other than watercolor paper can create stunning results. In some cases, you may even be able to use different media and techniques to create unique art pieces. While nothing can beat the joy of working on the super-absorbent yet sturdy paper that can take multiple washes of paint without warping or buckling, you may never come to appreciate that until you’ve explored other alternatives.

Sources  

• Beginner’s School: Watercolor Paper And Other Surfaces
• Joshua Nava Arts: Painting on Rice Paper
• John Lovett: Watercolor Canvas​
• Botanical Art & Artists: All about Painting on Vellum
• She Must Make Art: Watercolor Success on YUPO