Hera & I had a good go testing out some of our new eco-art supplies this morning, including recycled watercolour paper by Schoellershammer (Available for US$10.95 at Stubby Pencil Studio.)

What makes it environmentally friendly? It is made with 100% recycled paper, yippee!

For Kids : This is great watercolour paper to muck around on, it has a nice texture and works well for watercolours and finger painting (See Hera’s illustration above using Faber-Castell Watercolours.) Tempera and acrylics would also do well on this surface. The pad made it convenient to use, but as soon as the pad got too wet the top page started to split away from the rest (which isn’t unusual for watercolour blocks,) so I’d recommend using masking taping around the edge of each painting to keep the block together.

For Professionals : This paper is labeled as 220g/m2 and “student quality” and accurately so. It reminds me of the Canson watercolour paper I tried watercolours on when I was in college and a poor student… but then discovered how amazing Arches watercolour paper is and never looked back, good quality paper makes a huge difference when watercolour painting! This paper wasn’t too bad to work with, it’s just not professional quality so it’s not as easy to mix and layer the paint cleanly. (See test below using Windsor & Newton paints.) This paper would be good to work with if doing simple clean watercolours (where you aren’t building up layers of colour or doing any fancy techniques,) or other mediums you enjoy working with on a textured surface, such as acrylics or pastels.