watercolor sketchbooks with toned paper!

A couple of years ago I started using an ivory toned watercolor sketchbook from Hahnemuehle and I immediately got hooked on toned paper. They just sent me two new watercolor sketchbooks, one in a lovely shade of cool grey and another in a warm soft brown.

These arrived yesterday evening, and I couldn't wait to open them up and get started!
You can order these books now at Wet Paint. In Canada, Above Ground Art Supplies and Gwartzman’sArt Supplies have ordered it but it's not yet on their website. These are the first stores to roll them out.

Using toned paper allows an artist to use the paper to provide some of the color in the painting. It's especially fun with pastels, gouache, or other opaque media. I used traditional watercolors in these paintings, accented with opaque white from a felt tip pen. On the right side of the photo is the fact sheet -- it's printed on glossy white paper, and you can see the color differences in this photo between the white of that paper, and the grey and brown paper in the sketchbooks.

I used the beige paper to create a sunset effect in this scene with a lighthouse, by leaving the paper to provide the color for the sky and some of the water. A white pen provided a bit of white for the lighthouse and it's reflection in the water.

In the beach scene, I let the grey paper color the sky and added a few brush strokes of payne's grey to create a dark stormy cloud. I left the paper color for the sand, and just washed it lightly with sepia to warm it up. Lastly, I added the whites of the crashing waves with a white pen.

The sketchbooks come in two colors, cool grey and warm brown. Each color is available in three sizes: 4.13 x 5.83 inches, 5.83 x 8.27 inches (that's the size I used in these photos), and 5.51 x 5.51 square. The 60 pages of 95 pound paper is acid free and age resistant, and has a slight texture that's just a little smoother than standard cold pressed. The books have a color coordinated linen cover and matching elastic band, giving it an elegant sophisticated feel. Although these would make fabulous gifts for any artist, I'm keeping both of these for myself. 

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