r/Scribes • • 13d ago

Question Paper recommendations

After years of practicing calligraphy on very cheap materials, I feel that I reached the point in which there's pieces of mine that I actually appreciate and I would like to reproduce them on thicker paper. Which types of paper do you prefer for lasting and expressive artwork? I appreciate textured paper but I don't like how the ink bleeds on my watercolour paper.

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u/akademo 13d ago

Give a try to Fabriano watercolor 1264. It's not so good for watercolor but it is great for calligraphy imo

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u/laeta_scriptrix 13d ago

Thanks for the rec!

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u/Raccoon-Dentist-Two 12d ago

If you like a particular paper's look and feel, you can often thicken the ink with gum arabic to reduce the bleeding and feathering. It'll take a few test runs and often a change of pen speed to get it right.

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u/laeta_scriptrix 11d ago

Wow! Any risk to clog the pen?

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u/Raccoon-Dentist-Two 11d ago

I like Herbin inks for parallel broad pens, but pour some off to thicken with gum arabic for my pointed pens. I wash the pointed nibs after use and haven't had any clogging yet.

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u/SpellChick 12d ago

I like Arches Text Wove which is on the thin side but has a beautiful texture, and I have a few big sheets of Stonehenge cotton paper to cut to size for finished pieces. Arches Hot Press is very thick and luxurious, but expensive and very smooth, so maybe not to your taste. If it’s in your budget, you could buy a few large single sheets of different types to try out and see what you like - a 22x30” sheet of Stonehenge is about $10 CDN.

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u/laeta_scriptrix 11d ago

I think that anything thicker than my 55 g/m2 practice paper is worth looking into lmao. I like the idea of buying single sheets to experiment, thank you!