Watercolour Paper Review- Botanical Ultra Smooth

A review of the new Botanical Ultra Smooth paper from St Cuthberts Mill

In recent months, watercolour paper has been a hot topic across social media. 

Many botanical artists, like myself, use the Fabriano Artistico Hot Press paper, and recent changes to the manufacturing process have left lots of artists feeling less than satisfied.  St. Cuthberts Mill, a British company, recently brought out two new papers, which they are marketing as an alternative- Saunders Waterford HP and the Botanical Ultra Smooth. 

So, when Jackson’s Art contacted me and asked me to try out the new Botanical Ultra Smooth for them, I immediately said yes. I haven't had any problems with the Fabriano Artistico myself, as I still have a reasonable stock of it, but like many, have been wondering what paper to get when I need to order more. There have been mixed reports about the Botanical Ultra Smooth (some good, some bad), so I was curious to see for myself just how this new paper performed.

The paper arrived and true to its name, it is very smooth … deliciously, enticingly smooth. It’s also very white, much whiter than any of the other papers that I have here. It is branded as being quite similar to Fabriano Classico, which is the paper that SBA Diploma students are given, and one with which I am quite familiar. Although the Fabriano Classico is okay, it is only 50% cotton, and so the paper surface can’t take a lot of abuse. Fabriano Artistico on the other hand is 100% cotton, and so stands up well to wet washes, lifting and the occasional scrubbing. 

The Botanical Ultra Smooth Paper is 50% cotton.... how will it fare?

With an open mind, I decided to paint a sprig of Spanish lavender, Lavandula stoechas on the Botanical Ultra Smooth. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The paint went on well, the colours were very crisp and clear, and I found that I could lift the paint quite easily. There was almost no bleed (as happens with softer papers), so it was easy to paint really fine details. That’s just as well, because Spanish lavender is covered with lots of really tiny dark purple flowers. The showy purple sepals on the top of the lavender needed wet washes and smooth blending in order to achieve the translucency, but again I had no problem.

I don’t know whether it was the warm sunshine and soothing scent of lavender in my studio, or simply the pleasant experience of painting on the silky smooth surface of the paper, but I decided to keep going. As it was Earth Day, I added a rare bee to my painting, the Tawny Mining Bee, Andrena fulva  (it's common to the UK, but rare in Ireland so if you spot one, take a photograph). Again, I had absolutely no difficulty rendering the fine details on the paper, which made me appreciate the paper even more.

Fine details were easy to render- no paper bleed and crisp, clean colours.

Soon one lavender sprig soon turned into a dozen. In fact, I would have kept painting, but ran out of space! 

Just to compare, I decided to see how the lavender fared on my favourite Fabriano Artistico paper. The biggest difference really was the colour of the paper. I actually prefer the softer creamier colour of Fabriano, but really that’s a personal choice. Still, I think that the Botanical Ultra Smooth stood up well as a comparative paper for artists.

Finally, I decided that to be really fair, I should do a non-scientific test on all four HP papers- the Fabriano Classico, Saunders Waterford, Fabriano Artistico and Botanical Ultra Smooth. All of the papers are 300gsm.

I began with a wash of Cobalt Violet, which I often use in my first washes. It’s a great colour (ideal for reflected lights) but can be a bit difficult to handle because it granulates. The Botanical Ultra Smooth took the washes really well and gave the cleanest brightest results, which is unsurprising given the whiteness of the paper.

I then did washes of Winsor Violet (Dioxine), and tried lifting and scrubbing with a stiff brush and finally using the magic eraser. Winsor Violet is a wonderful pigment, but has a tendency to stain. Woe betide the artist who drops their brush loaded with this paint on their paper! The magic eraser is a great help, but really abrasive to the paper surface. 

Here are my results rated 1 (best performing) to 4 (least performing)

	Fabriano Classico HP	Saunders Waterford HP	Fabriano Artistico HP	Botanical Ultra Smooth
	50% cotton, 300gsm	100% cotton, 300 gsm	100% cotton, 300gsm	50% cotton, 300gsm
Whiteness	2	3	4	1
Smoothness to touch	4	3	2	1
Washes	4	1	2	3
Clarity of colour	4	2	3	1
Lifting	4	3	1	2
Scrubbing	3	4	1	2

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Conclusion:

The Botanical Ultra Smooth was actually quite a surprise to me. I had a lot of reservations about trying this paper out, particularly because of the 50% cotton content and the whiteness of the paper. However, it was really nice to paint on and gave great results. It is considerably smoother than the other papers, which makes it an ideal paper for rendering fine details. I noticed too that writing in ink on it was a lot nicer than on the other papers, and so I imagine that it would be ideal for scientific illustration. The paper surface stood up quite well to scrubbing. 

 

Although I still love my Fabriano Artistico (and am smug in the knowledge that I still have a good stock of it), I would recommend the Botanical Ultra Smooth paper, particularly for illustration work.  

Both these paintings will be for sale in the exhibition 'Flora Botanica' at Ranelagh Arts Centre, 5th-17th May