ForMatter/Materials/paper/Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton)
mat_paper_watercolor

Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton)

100 percent cotton paper, sized for water media · Arches, Saunders Waterford, Fabriano, cotton watercolor paper, cold-press 140 lb, hot-press watercolor paper
highlast updated 2026-04-28

The paper of every serious watercolor painting and most fashion-illustration sketches. Premium watercolor paper is 100 percent cotton (alpha-cellulose grades exist but the canon is cotton), heavily sized internally and externally so that water sits on the surface long enough to be worked rather than absorbed instantly into the fiber. Three weights: 90 lb (a sketching weight, will buckle under wet washes), 140 lb (the standard, holds wet washes flat after stretching), 300 lb (a near-board weight that doesn't need stretching at all). Three surface textures: hot-press (smooth, the illustrator's choice for fine detail), cold-press (the standard medium-toothed surface), rough (the painter's texture, exaggerated tooth). The brand canon is French (Arches), British (Saunders Waterford, Bockingford), Italian (Fabriano, Magnani). Buy from Dick Blick or Daniel Smith for sheets and blocks.

100 percent cotton (cotton linters) pulp, mould-made on cylinder mould or fourdrinier machines, internally and externally sized with gelatin (historic; some grades use synthetic alternatives — the vegan substitution noted on premium grades). Standard sizes 22x30 inch sheet (the international full sheet), watercolor blocks 9x12 to 18x24 with all four edges glued for stretch-free work. Weights expressed in lb per ream of 22x30 sheets — 140 lb = 300 g/m², 300 lb = 638 g/m². Cold-press (CP) the standard medium tooth; hot-press (HP) smooth; rough (R) the heavily-textured working surface. Internal sizing slows water absorption (the paint sits on the surface for 30-60 seconds, allowing wet-into-wet blending); external sizing creates the lift-and-edge-control behavior that distinguishes watercolor paper from ordinary drawing paper. pH 7-8 (alkaline buffered for archival permanence per ISO 9706). 90 lb sheets must be stretched before painting (taped wet, dried tight) to prevent buckling; 140 lb stretches lightly or accepts a buckle that flattens dry; 300 lb takes any wash without buckling. Tears cleanly along the deckle edge.

mechanical

  • weight_g_m2300
  • fiber_content100 percent cotton
  • ph7.5
  • internal_sizinggelatin (historic) or synthetic vegan-alternative
source: Arches technical specifications; Saunders Waterford product data

Sustainability

  • embodied carbon kg co2e per kg5.5
  • sourceEditorial estimate — cotton fiber paper carries higher embodied carbon than wood-pulp because of the cotton agriculture upstream. Sizing chemistry adds further.
  • recyclabilitymoderate — cotton fiber recoverable in mixed-paper streams but valuable for re-pulping into archival product
  • biodegradableTrue
  • certificationsISO 9706 (paper permanence; alkaline buffered), FSC certifiable (some grades use FSC-certified pulp blends)
  • localityFrance (Arches, Canson, Sennelier), England (Saunders Waterford / St Cuthberts Mill), Italy (Fabriano), USA (Strathmore mid-tier)
visual
warm bright white to cream; visible cotton-fiber texture in cold-press / rough grades; deckle-edge on full sheets reads as the hand-made / mould-made signature
tactile
the most distinctive paper hand — substantial, soft, slightly napped; the cold-press surface invites the brush
weight perception
substantial — a 300 lb sheet reads as half-board, half-paper
acoustic
soft rustle, the sound of fine art studios

PBR starter values

finish · matte — open for table, JSON, host snippets, downloads

Principled BSDF defaults derived from the sphere matte finish. Reasonable seed for Blender, Substance, Keyshot, Rhino — tune per material. Or grab the whole library at once: ForMaterials library →

# finish:                   matte
albedo                      #f0ead8
metallic                    0.00
roughness                   0.75
ior                         1.45
transmission                0.00
clearcoat                   0.00
sheen                       0.00
anisotropic                 0.00
copy as JSON 
{
  "albedo": "#f0ead8",
  "metallic": 0.0,
  "roughness": 0.75,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "transmission": 0.0,
  "clearcoat": 0.0,
  "sheen": 0.0,
  "anisotropic": 0.0
}
Blender 4.x Python 
# Blender 4.x — Principled BSDF
# Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton) · finish: matte
import bpy
mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="mat_paper_watercolor")
mat.use_nodes = True
bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
bsdf.inputs["Base Color"].default_value         = (0.8714, 0.8228, 0.6867, 1.0)
bsdf.inputs["Metallic"].default_value           = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Roughness"].default_value          = 0.750
bsdf.inputs["IOR"].default_value                = 1.450
bsdf.inputs["Transmission Weight"].default_value = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Coat Weight"].default_value        = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Sheen Weight"].default_value       = 0.000
bsdf.inputs["Anisotropic"].default_value        = 0.000
KeyShot Python (lux) 
# KeyShot 11+ — lux Python API, Generic material
# Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton) · finish: matte
# Run from Window → Scripting Console
import lux
mat = lux.createMaterial(name="mat_paper_watercolor", materialType="Generic")
mat.setProperty("diffuse",      (240, 234, 216))   # 8-bit sRGB
mat.setProperty("metallic",     0.000)
mat.setProperty("roughness",    0.750)
mat.setProperty("indexOfRefraction", 1.450)
mat.setProperty("transparency", 0.000)
mat.setProperty("coatingWeight", 0.000)
Substance pbrMetalRough 
{
  "_format": "Substance Designer / Painter \u2014 pbrMetalRough constants",
  "_about": "Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton) \u00b7 finish: matte",
  "baseColor": {
    "r": 0.8714,
    "g": 0.8228,
    "b": 0.6867
  },
  "metallic": 0.0,
  "roughness": 0.75,
  "ior": 1.45,
  "opacity": 1.0,
  "anisotropyLevel": 0.0,
  "_notes": "Channels listed are the standard Substance pbrMetalRough output. Drop into a Uniform Color node per channel, or as the constant input on a layered stack."
}
glTF 2.0 Metallic-Roughness 
{
  "asset": {
    "version": "2.0",
    "generator": "ForMatter"
  },
  "materials": [
    {
      "name": "mat_paper_watercolor",
      "pbrMetallicRoughness": {
        "baseColorFactor": [
          0.8714,
          0.8228,
          0.6867,
          1.0
        ],
        "metallicFactor": 0.0,
        "roughnessFactor": 0.75
      },
      "extensions": {
        "KHR_materials_ior": {
          "ior": 1.45
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
USD Preview Surface 
# USD Preview Surface — UsdShade.MaterialLook prim attributes
# Watercolor Paper (140 lb Cold-Press, 100 percent Cotton) · finish: matte
def Material "mat_paper_watercolor" {
    token outputs:surface.connect = </mat_paper_watercolor/PreviewSurface.outputs:surface>

    def Shader "PreviewSurface" {
        uniform token info:id = "UsdPreviewSurface"
        color3f inputs:diffuseColor = (0.8714, 0.8228, 0.6867)
        float   inputs:metallic     = 0.000
        float   inputs:roughness    = 0.750
        float   inputs:ior          = 1.450
        float   inputs:opacity      = 1.000
        float   inputs:clearcoat    = 0.000
        token   outputs:surface
    }
}
↓ download glTF material
Substitutes
Bristol Board
Finishes that suit this material
Embossed paper (relief texture) · textured
Where to buyhttps://www.dickblick.com/

Second life

repairabilitylow — conservation-grade paper repairs (tape mending) for archival pieces; not for amateur fix.
recyclabilitymoderate — sized cotton-rag paper accepts mainstream paper recycling.
disposal pathcurbside; archival pieces conserved indefinitely.
typical longevity200 years (typical)
failure modes
  • acid-degradation in non-archival grades
  • foxing (mold spots)
  • water damage

Library of Congress paper-conservation guidelines; Strathmore / Arches / Fabriano cotton-rag paper technical literature.

Citations

Further reading