Hi there,

I am a watercolor painter who usually works on 140# CP paper. I'm wondering which Japanese papers might work well for watercolor?

Most Japanese papers are not suitable for watercolor because they lack the proper sizing needed to hold pigment while using water. The majority of Japanese papers have light internal sizing and no external sizing which can be found in traditional watercolor papers.Without this external sizing the pigment will run and the paper will be prone to buckling.

We do offer one Japanese paper that is suitable for watercolor and that is the Masa paper. We recommend using this paper for wet on dry and very light washes. Keep in mind that this is a thinner paper available in both 77gsm and 140gsm.