Fabriano Studio Watercolor Paper

My most recent art supply purchase included a Fabriano Studio Watercolour paper pad.  It is hot press, 140 lbs, acid free and made from 25% cotton fiber.  The colours remain vibrant, however they do not move nor blend as easily as on the Fabriano Artistico.  Therefore, it is not really suitable for wet into wet washes.  I decided to use it for "tight" paintings where I could work smaller sections at a time and add wet on dry layers.  Below are some photos I took while painting a portrait from the 1930s.

The first step was the pencil outline drawing and an overall light wash of new gamboge.

I then started painting the facial features working light to dark.  Light skin tone is pretty much some variation of beige.  I used rose madder, new gamboge and vermilion to mix warm and cool tones of orange and added raw umber and ultramarine blue to my mixes for the cooler darker shadows.

Next I worked on the hair.  Again using the same colours as before I created darker mixtures.  To maintain harmony, using a limited palette works great.

Because the shirt already had a yellow wash, I added a light glaze of rose madder to give it an orangish tone and added similar mixtures as before for the shadows.

The little shapes and patterns on the shirt were added once the previous layer was dry.

The last step was to add the background wash; a green using new gamboge and ultramarine blue.

The completed painting,

Like most papers, it does buckle a bit, but it did return to flat once the larger areas were dry.  I will continue using this paper pad for more detailed paintings.  It is budget friendly and the results are satisfactory.

Lastly, for those of us who like pencil drawings. :)

"All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade."
-Leo Tolstoy