This was my first time using this paper and for the first hour or so I thought the paper really, really fought me. I was wrong. Turned out, it was I who was fighting the paper because I was using it incorrectly. Once I started using it correctly, I was really pleased with how it worked. This is really nice, thick paper with a canvas-like texture (but more subtle than a real canvas). I was using it in class to do a value study in black, white and shades of gray. I was using professional artists' quality acrylic paint (Golden Heavy Body) and professional, high quality brushes (Da Vinci). My paints were moist because I was using the Masterson Sta-wet palette. In the beginning, I used wet brushes and a substantial amount of water to to do a very translucent light gray wash, akin to a light watercolor wash. The paper was absorbing the water and drying quickly. It did not pill or fray, but after a while, the paper started curling along the edges and forming some gentle hill and valley buckling shapes in the middle. I then stopped using water and just started using moist but not drippy brushes, and wet acrylic paint at full opacity over the areas where I had done the wash. The buckling stopped and reversed itself, and the edge curling reduced but still remained. You can see the transparent wash underpainting and the curling edges in Image 1. For the next 3 hours, I continued to paint with progressive layers of acrylic paint and the paper worked beautifully, the paint went on smoothly and built up nicely. The value study still needs more work, but if you look at image 2, you will see the edge curling has reduced significantly, and there's no buckling in the middle. All in all, this one sheet was worked on for 4 hours with successive layers of wet paint and it held up very well. So, I would say, if you use this paper for opaque acrylic paintings, or impasto style, it is great. Next week, I am going to try the paper with Golden Matte Medium which lets you achieve translucent effects (instead of using lots of water), and I will also try a version where I coat the paper with a single layer of gesso begore painting. I will update my review with my results, but even without those experiments, this paper gets a thumbs up from me for color studies, plein air, painting practice and even for sale/display work that is easier to transport, sell and hang than heavier canvases. All-in-all, if you are doing single day paintings with acrylics where you want things to dry quickly so you can layer paint, this paper is great.
