Canson® XL® Oil & Acrylic paper review

Canson^® XL^® Acrylic features a bleed proof, canvas like textured paper that is ready to use with oil or acrylic without the need of priming or preparation and it's my favorite paper to use. There is only a minimum of curling on the edges and is easily straightened out The weight is 136Lbs for both the 9x12" and the 11x14". One side has more texture than the other. Either side can be painted on. There are 24 sheets in both pads. I paid just under $10 for 9x12" and $12 for the 11x14" at my local Walmart.

I can easily recommend either sizes of this paper as there is no prep involved and I can use either oil or acrylic paints or both as in wet on wet technique. The paper will stay sturdy throughout my painting and don't have to worry about warping

Here are some paintings I did on the Canson XL Oil & Acrylic paper. They are all painted with Apple Barrel acrylic paints by Plaid.

male and female cardinals

male cardinal

chipmunk

squirrel looking out of a hole in a wall

my backyard squirrel sitting on a fence

sunlight between rocks

tall ship inundated by a huge wave

tall ship getting hit by a huge wave

Folk Art acrylic paint review

Paints are rated on a light-fastness scale that runs from 1 to 5.

1=Excellent
2=Very good
3=Good
4=Fair
5=Poor
All of the Folk Art Acrylic Paint Colors are rated Excellent or Very Good (1 or 2). These paints are made from some of the purest pigment available, which results in its superior quality.

folk art paint

This acrylic paint is thicker than the Apple Barrel acrylic paints, are slightly thinner than traditional acrylics and comes in a variety of colors and finishes. I like to use the matte finish since it's going on a painting and when dry, it gets a gloss sealer. Other finishes would be a waste of money for me for obvious reasons. I pay under a buck for each matte color at my local Walmart. The paint goes on very smooth and makes knife work a bit easier.

I could just use the Apple Barrel acrylic paints but every now and then I need something a bit heavier in viscosity so I turn to folk art paints. I've done plenty of paintings just using the folk art paints. The colors as with any acrylic paint dries darker than what you see when pouring it out to your palette so you may need to make some adjustments to enhance the color by adding a little white or yellow depending on what you are striving for. I usually end up having to add a few layers to my forefront to make them stand out. Often times the painting might look darker than I expected but when I add my acrylic sealant or a gloss varnish the colors seem to pop a bit more.

I do recommend using these paints. They are fairly inexpensive compared to the ones in a tube. They come in 2 oz and 8 oz bottles and are pour-able. The colors are vibrant and the paint has superior quality as the one's in tubes. Below are a few paintings I did using just the FolkArt acrylic paints by Plaid.

painting with FolkArt acrylic paints

painting with FolkArt acrylic paints

painting with FolkArt acrylic paints

painting with FolkArt acrylic paints

Daler/Rowney acrylic paint paper review

Recently I stopped in at a local Walmart to buy an art paper pad for acrylics. I had used up my last paper and needed to stock up with my usual 9"x12" pad. I like to use these special papers for painting as they are inexpensive, light weight and are easy to store without taking a lot of space like stretched canvas would. Paintings look great on this paper and the colors get enhanced so much after putting on a sealer that sometimes it's hard to tell if the paint is oil or acrylic.

I paint for the sake of painting and unless I'm commissioned to do a painting, I"ll paint on paper. I live in an area where people will not pay much (over $50) for a painting, so I can offer them paper instead as long as it's good quality and has some decent weight. Weight of paper simply is determined how much pressure is used in creating it, i.e. 60# paper = 60# of pressure to make it. The higher the pressure the better the paper.

When I got to the area where the paper pads were, my usual paper pads were out of stock. All they had was Daler/Rowney 9"x12" Acrylic paper pad.

acrylic paper

I like to cut these papers into 8"x10" for inexpensive frame options as one can find them just about anywhere for fairly cheap. This paper is 115lb and come 10 sheets to a pad. My price was $2.97 + tax. It was cheap enough to give them a try to see how well this paper performs compared to my usual ones. I was in a pinch and didn't have time running around looking for my usual papers, so I bought one pad.

The next day I decided to try a sheet out and compared it to what I was used to. The paper was much thinner and smoother. Once I started prepping my paper with a thin layer of gesso, the edges began curling and the middle buckled out. I had also used some masking tape for a straight line, for an ocean horizon, which I do often with my other papers. When I pulled the tape off, it pulled a layer of paper along with it. I also tape the corners down to keep the paper flat and so that it won't move and was worried that the tape would pull off a layer from my corners.

During the course of painting on this paper, I notice that things just began getting worse with warping. It would even undo the taped corners from my table as I painted. Each time I painted a layer I would have to stop and let the paper dry totally, before continuing otherwise I'd have a rolled up piece of paper. To solve the problem of warping on my next painting, I added a few layers of gesso on both sides of the paper. That seemed to have eliminated some of the problem. With thicker paper I've never had a problem of warping nor the need for gesso. The papers come ready for painting.

Once I finally got my painting done, it looked good but the paper was rolled up after drying. No....I do not like this paper by Daler/Rowney nor do I recommend it! There are much better papers out there available. Here is a link regarding painting on paper and the outcome: http://www.justpaint.org/paper-warping-when-painting-with-acrylics/