Hahnemühle's New Agave Paper

Today we are going to talk paper. Specifically the new Agave Watercolour Paper. Hahnemühle is always updating their paper products, finding ways to improve and that includes improving their environmental approach. They have recently added to their line a few new papers made with natural resources and terming it their Natural Line. The Agave is one of them.

What to do? What to do? Experiment and play, of course! The Agave is classified as a watercolor paper so that is where I began. At 70% Agave fibre, 30% cotton rag and 135 lbs, I figured the paper could probably take a decent amount of water. My florals here were pretty controlled, not too much water. I wanted the colors to be true since I was working with a lighter color set than normal. But my background . . . now that got a bunch of water! It got covered with a good layer of water, then I started painting in some Schmincke colors. Several layers of paint and a good bit of water and it worked great! No paper issues at all - no warping, no pilling, I was able to lift color and reapply color. Yay! 

Actually it worked so well I did more. Same steps. Draw, paint florals, then backgrounds. Not as much water on the background this time. And once dry - finish the line work. The Agave is great for drawing on. My normal tangling pens did not work so well but my Sharpies were excellent! And the white? That is a paint pen. The Agave is not perfectly smooth, but it is close. You can see a little problem at that top right corner. When I removed the painters tape I also removed a bit of the paper. I tried several ways of using the tape and I found that removing the tape immediately after you work and reapplying it when you come back to the art is the best way. Leaving the tape on overnight makes it harder to remove without some damage to your paper. 

These florals turned out great working wet into wet. I drew the flowers first, then filled them with water, then touched the paint color into the water. The background included a fair amount of water also and the Agave handled it super! 

This is my favorite! Am I allowed to say that??? Hahaha! It is! I used a full page of the Agave for this one! To get started I used a mop brush and covered the entire surface with water. Then I started painting in splotches of color here and there and letting the colors run and bleed and blend in the water. It is awesome to watch! Once the background was completely dry I used the Sharpie to draw this big floater. Schmincke watercolors were used to paint the individual arms. Tangling and highlights finished it up. A whole lot of water was used making this piece of art! 

And just because it is my blog and I can . . . here is another floater made the same way. But there are so many other ways to use this watercolor paper, so I did. 

For this one I brought out a brayer, the same one I use for gelli printing. And several shimmer shimmer acrylic paints. And I rolled on 5 or 6 different colors, all over, all layered with some splotches here and there. Not my favorite for a background, kind of boring for me, but I think it works here. Hahahaha! Those flowers were drawn and painted with watercolors right on top of all that acrylic paint. All total there are probably 8 or 9 layers of color. The Agave paper was like - what are you thinking??? Hahahahaha! Not really! The Agave was great! 

The first product I used back when I first started working with color was Dylusions Ink Sprays. Still one of my favorite color media, I just don't use them often enough and I should. For this piece I brought out three bottles of sprays and just started spritzing the color on the paper. Then I sprayed a lot of water over the entire sheet and let the colors blend and bleed. After it dried I drew the florals, then watercolored them. Detailed line work was last. The Dylusions are a different type of product being a spray and the Agave loved them!

Markers came next. Ecoline Brush Pens are what I used for this one. Scribbled swatches of color all over the blank page then sprayed water on all of it. Not a lot of water used. I used a few of the brush pens to straight up color those flowers floating through. The detailed line work was last. The Agave loved these markers! So did I! I loved it so much I wanted to try one more. 

So this is like my second favorite ever! I used Tombow Brush Pens and just scribbled color on like I did with the Ecolines. Then sprayed water all over and let it sit. A little Sharpie work and a couple stamps finished this one off nicely! Water based markers, not alcohol based. Although I do need to try something like this and see what happens. 

Next up? Texture by way of The Crafter's Workshop's Stencil Butter. I had some new stencils come in and wanted to try them out. This is simple as taping that stencil down as snug as you can, then scraping the butter across the stencil using a palette knife. Or an old credit card or paint scraper tool. Get the color down inside those stencil openings. And when you have something you love - lift up that stencil and go wash it. Then move your art away from the cat and leave it to dry and harden. Like cement hard. Actually no water used on this piece at all. Perfecto! What else could I do with this paper? 

Talking of stencils, I brought out another one.  This piece of art is way different for me. I made it watching a Tracy Weinzapfel video. It included gesso, acrylic paints and more of that yummy stencil butter. Lots of damp product - no water, but lots of dampness. And it worked great! I tell you, the only issue I have ever had with the Agave is removing the painters tape. And I can live with that. 

This one includes a whole lot of gesso! Hahahaha! The whole page! And see those texture bumps? Those are more gesso scraped through dry wall tape. The sunflower is watercolored on top of an acrylic background. I don't know why people say you can't watercolor on top of acrylic. I do it all the time. Strange. The brown sunflower center is acrylic and I even burned/bubbled it up with a heat gun to add some texture. Awesome! So overall a whole lot of damp. 

That one was so much fun I did another. I included collage work this time - each of those petals were cut from a book page. And again I bubbled the center with a heat tool. I didn't even burn the paper! Hahahaha! Lots of gesso, acrylic and watercolors on this piece of art. These two were part of the fun in another Tracy video. 

I tried a lot of different medium on the Agave paper and every single one of them worked great! And the Agave accepted each one of those products with no problem at all. Super paper! I think the Agave and the Collection are my favorite Hahnemühle papers for painting. I came back to the watercolors to make this peek-a-boo piece of art watching another of Tracy's videos.  I love the colors! Gorgeous background! 

I totally made up that name Peek-a-Boo Technique. And I love it so much! And the Agave does such a wonderful job with lots of water. So I made one more last night. I couldn't not do it! Lots of water all over the background, then I used my Antique Tones FINETEC Premium watercolour set and added in some splotches here and there. Three layers of color on this one. My Posca Paint Pens work great on the Agave! 

So, what do I think about the Agave? I love it! I think you should go buy some! Hahahaha! I do! The only issue I had was removing the painters tape. And as long as I remember to remove the tape when I am through working - it works just fine. The paper can handle any amount of water or liquid you throw at it. No buckling, no warping, no pilling, nothing weird. I promise. Twelve sheets in the pad I have and I am able to get two nice paintings on each page. You will love it. I promise. 

Agave Watercolour paper from Hahnemühle can be purchased here.