I’ve never filled up a journal before reviewing it!
As this became my Corona-Virus Journal,
I quickly filled it up with paintings and writing
about this strange time we are living in.

I’m a huge fan of Hahnemühle’s papers, and my go to journals are either Hahnemühle Watercolour journal or for sketching and fast watercolors, the Hahnemühle Nostalgie Sketchbook.

Now the new Hahnemühle
Toned Watercolour Book will
take the place of my white ones,
or at least stand tall as one of my favorite alternatives. The toned
papers come in two colors, grey
(my favorite) and a warm beige.

Let me say how surprised I am
about the grey paper used with watercolors!  When I was first
given a sample to review, I truly thought that this would become a
book whereby I did a LOT of ink sketching with light watercolors in muted colors, a direction in which I was heading. I was pleasantly surprised at the colors, and it changed my art again! This grey toned
journal is my very favorite journal!

Before I get into the journal details (which are very like the white watercolour journals)
let me share the surprising color applications.  The first is the beautiful
deep jewel tone color on the pale grey paper!
Above, an unusual color mixing chart — GORGEOUS!
To have the jewel tones read in this manner was a huge surprise for me.

Below, compare the white paper (left) against the grey paper (right, and labeled),
noting the brilliance and depth of colors on both… different but not inferior!

WHITE

GREY

WHITE

GREY

WHITE

GREY

GREY

Secondly, I have been
playing  with waterproof
and water soluble black and grey inks used with
watercolor and letting them move into each other in unusual ways.  The interplay of the watercolors mixed
with the black and grey inks introduced before the watercolor washes makes
for surprises, and the grey toned paper is wonderful
for these inky watercolor sketches.  The grey paper
does not limit me as I
thought it might.

pencil

ink

finished

The grey paper takes graphite pencil and water soluble graphite well, left.  HB graphite pencil erases completely without ghosting. Ink does not move as smoothly on cold press paper as on Nostalgie (hot press paper) — fine points pens can hang up a bit on the slightly textured paper, above, and sheen inks don’t shine well.
No different on this paper than any cold press watercolor paper, a bit of skipping except in wide points (M, B, Stub Nibs) or very wet writers.

I wrote in fineline then painted in various colors.

I tested the Fineline Masking Fluid pen on the grey paper…
The test went well, as I thought it would — all bits of Fineline were removed and watercolor was accepted fully over the top of the removed masking fluid.

Details: The journal is quite like the white Hahnemühle Watercolour journal
in terms of construction and quality, though a different cover.
The linen-like cover has a different weave so you can easily see the
difference if you have both white and toned watercolour pages.
At this time it does not come in A4, but in A5 and A6, and a square 5.5″ format.
There are 30 sheets of acid free paper.
Hahnemühle Toned Watercolour paper is 200 gsm or 95 lb
fine grained surface structure on both sides — as is the white paper —
and as there is no right or wrong side to the grain, this means 60 paintable pages,
no curl when I use them even with wet washes.
It has a serious rubber band that will not stretch out of shape, and a ribbon.
The only downside is no envelope…  I add one to the back!

 Hahnemühle has a commitment to environmental responsibility, which means
the world to me.  I vote with my $$$, and just as I switched to fountain pens to
reduce plastic waste in my ink drawings, knowing I am buying from
a company that is interested in environmental stewardship is important.

They are working to get the new product in stores across America.
In the USA at this time they are sold at:
Wet Paint (one of two stores I frequent online),
In Canada:
Gwartzman’s Art Supply in Toronto,
Above Ground in Toronto.

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or check out my new, improved dkatiepowellart.com