Reuse waste paper as watercolor paper?

[darinb]

I'm back to printing and thus back to printing an image again and again and gain to "correct" changes that even I can't see the next day.

So...it occurs to me that the Canson Etching Edition paper I am using is awfully nice paper--100% cotton rag, no OBAs, and that the backside is even uncoated. Isn't Canson and Arches--the guys who make the expensive watercolor paper--the same company? Is the base paper for Etching Edition a watercolor paper?

I'm thinking of just saving my work prints up, cutting them in half, and donating them to local schools, etc. I've been recycling them but that seems awfully wasteful.

Thoughts?

--Darin

[Rhossydd]

You might like to try printing just parts of the image as test strips to reduce waste to start with.

Other than that, donating quality 'waste' paper to schools is a great idea. I'm sure the more senior art classes would welcome decent watercolour paper for free.

[darinb]

I wrote the manufacturer and the responded within a few hours:

"The base paper is 100% cotton rag and internally sized with calcium carbonate for archival reasons.  It might be best suited to sketching, as watercolor papers are sized (typically with gelatin) to pull moisture into the paper while leaving any pigment on the surface with minimal bleeding.  The inkjet receiver surface still may have some usefulness for various art techniques …it would just have to be tested.  I’ve worked with several artists that print on Edition Etching and embellish with various techniques from pen and ink, pencil and encaustic wax, acrylic paints, etc."

--Darin

[nirpat89]

They suck up a lot of water.  I tried using some of my scraps for alternative processes like cyanotypes etc but because of absence of sizing, the sensitizer just shot through the paper - not suitable.  They might work better as a substitute for print-making papers which are devoid of sizing as well. 

Niranjan.

[petermfiore]

I wrote the manufacturer and the responded within a few hours:

"The base paper is 100% cotton rag and internally sized with calcium carbonate for archival reasons.  It might be best suited to sketching, as watercolor papers are sized (typically with gelatin) to pull moisture into the paper while leaving any pigment on the surface with minimal bleeding.  The inkjet receiver surface still may have some usefulness for various art techniques …it would just have to be tested. I've worked with several artists that print on Edition Etching and embellish with various techniques from pen and ink, pencil and encaustic wax, acrylic paints, etc."

--Darin

Without sizing, it would be torturous for watercolor. Drawing less so, erasing could be difficult.

Peter

[Garnick]

Hello Darin,

A quote from Rhossydd. "You might like to try printing just parts of the image as test strips to reduce waste to start with".  This is exactly what I was going to mention.  During the 40+ years in my business of custom photographic printing, starting in the darkroom and then eventually into inkjet printing, I have always started with a 2" x 8" test strip of a section of the image that will give me the most area that will show me the info that I need.  The 2 x 8" strips came from a job I had in a Custom Colour Lab in Toronto for 6 years starting in 1968.  OK, there's my too-wordy history. Now back to the test strip.  Of course if I'm working with a rather large image I will often start with a somewhat larger strip and go from that and more strips if necessary. So to boil this all down -- I would never never print the full sized print just as a test.  Not to say that all so called final prints become final prints if you know what I mean.  Then of course that print does become a TEST PRINT that I hadn't wanted.
I also occasionally print more than one test strip on the same image in various sections if necessary.

Well Darin I do apology for my verbosity and taking so much of your time 

Gary