So here I’ve reviewed these papers from Hahnemuhle. I was really curious about these after all the hype . Hahnemuhle is a German paper manufacturing company . This company has been around for quite a long time now and by long I mean since 1584. Many photographers and fine artists use Hahnemuhle paper for printing and recently it’s getting a lot of attention for its watercolor papers. So I bought these sample papers to try out with different techniques on it.
So I tested these papers by painting watercolour portraits and here is my review-
Cezanne paper- It is 300 gsm - 100% cotton cold pressed. As Hahnemuhle’s official website states quote - This is natural white, acid free, lightfast and extremely resistant to ageing. The surface sizing permits corrections to be made to the wet paper. The colours retain their brilliance. So I really found this paper suitable for wet on wet techniques. Also the texture almost feels like Arches CP but with a more butteriness to it . All in all I really loved this paper and was excited with the color vibrancy it upholded. It was impossible for me to point out any cons about it.
Bamboo mixed media paper- 265 gsm, which is 90% bamboo fibres, 10% cotton. First thing first we have to really appreciate how art brands experiment and bring out these environmental friendly things around. I think this paper would also be suitable for fine art prints which the website aswell confirms to. While I am not too sure if I like the paper for my style which is usually wet on wet techniques and layers of watercolour media but I would really encourage it for artists who work with mixed media like polychromos pencil. Using other dry mediums on this paper helped me uplift the watercolour painting by giving a little more edge and saturation to the painting.
Britannia paper- It’s from their academic range. It’s a 300 gsm cold pressed , matt, grain fine paper. I have seen a lot of watercolour artists who work with hot pressed paper love this one given that this is a cold pressed paper. The reason maybe because it has minimal texture. This wouldn’t be my no.1 pick of watercolor paper though. Working with layers might be a little tough on this one as colours lift off too easily. Also I found few areas behaving weirdly after 2 to 3 layers. So I would not recommend this one for artists who work with lots of layers but totally for mixed media again.
Burgund paper- It’s from their academic range. I found this one very similar to Britannia. It behaves almost the same way and I won’t be able to differ it from Britannia given the texture and how the colour lifts off too easily . So this one again I would recommend for mixed media but not for multiple layerings.
Harmony watercolor paper- Its a cold- pressed matte grain fin and is surface -sized. I found the texture very similar to canson’s montval and is not very textured and pretty okay for wet-on-wet technique. The color vibrancy too looks okay. This paper is ideal if you want to make custom sketchbooks..
Expression for watercolor - So i saved the best for the last, my favourite one. It’s a 100% cotton rag CP matte and grain fin 300 gsm. This is my favourite after ‘Cezanne’. The texture isn’t very prominent and feels like a mix between HP and CP paper. Though you can lift off color from this paper but not too much like ‘Britannia and burgund’ and are able to paint beautiful gradation effect when you add more water while the paint is still wet..The color vibrancy is also just fantastic..
So that is all my experience with these papers by Hahnemuhle and feedback is as per my personal preference according to the painting techniques I use. So I would still recommend if you can get your hands on the sample papers so you can be a better judge about it and choose as per your preferences what works for you and what doesn’t.
Until then,
Happy Painting!
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