Review: Canson ‘Moulin Du Roy’ Watercolour Paper

Over the last month, my love for watercolours has been rekindled and accordingly, I decided it was time for a paper change.

Up until this point, I’ve been using the Bockingford Hot-Pressed Watercolour Paper, which is great for gouache but doesn’t perform too well with wet-on-wet painting (oddly including watercolours!). I’ve had an ongoing issue of the paper crumpling and drying to a shrivelled unworkable format if it became too saturated, and so have had to stretch the paper beforehand if using watercolours. It’s a chore, time-consuming and obstructs the progress of your piece. No more, I declared. It’s time to move on.

After a browse and a quick research session, I came across Canson’s ‘Moulin Du Roy’ Watercolour Paper* (300gsm, hot-pressed) and have now been using it for over a month. And.. I adore it. I recently used it for this piece amongst others, and have never enjoyed watercolours more.

The Canson is acid-free cotton paper which absorbs water and paint beautifully, without any crumpling or warping. Any colours you place on it with your brush appear crisp and vivid, whether watercolour or gouache (I’ve used both, including water-heavy brush strokes), and dries to a sharp finish. If you’re using solely watercolour, this paper is a dream for layering, manipulating and even pooling.

My rating: 10/10. I can’t fault this paper at all, and highly recommend it. Though it’s only been just over a month, I’ve put it through some stringent tests and it has performed beautifully.