WATERCOLOR BLOCKS

[MaryAnne Long]

I love working with a watercolor block - my first was a Cotman.

Then I bought what I thought were Arches watercolor blocks from Amazon.  Seems I did not read it close enough.  I saw the French term on the screen ("Bloc Aquarelle") and bought several blocks (or so I thought).   Turns out that "bloc" is pad in English.

So I decided to turn the pads into my own blocks:

I took good masking tape (1 inch wide) and taped the edges of the pad.  Just pull back tape to remove painting. Then smooth the masking tape back over the next sheet.  Much cheaper than buying blocks and seems to work as well.   Will be so much less expensive as the pads are less expensive and have more sheets than the blocks. 

Hope someone else tries this and see if it works as well.

aloha

mea

[Val]

Interesting idea Mea.      Never hurts to save a bit of money.....then you get to buy more stuff! 

[Steve Weatherwax]

Mea, I tried this a couple of times with mixed results. He main problem seemed to be the cheap  student grade paper I used. It really didn't hold up well to a heavy wash. Other than that, it's a good idea if you use heavier paper (300 lb) or make a block with lighter, but stretched paper.

I have an Arches watercolor block. 300 lb. It's really nice, but expensive.

[MaryAnne Long]

Steve,

Thanks for sharing.

I have several Arches "blocks" coming from Amazon.  Not sure whether they will be "bloc" (pad) or real block. 
aloha

mea

[TeresaM]

Thanks  Mea great idea. I will try this out as i agree blocks are very expensive 

[Win]

Great tip. Thanks Mea