Prints Charming

I've been trying to make copies of some of my watercolor projects, with varied results by taking them to professional printers.  One did a fantastic job at a not so fantastic price - Eeek! $$$.  The other tried and used paper I brought in, but the copy really didn't look too much like the original.  Not all the colors and shadings were duplicated.  On its own, not that bad, but compared to the original - Oops.

Now fast forward to Hobby Lobby earlier this week.  Next to the portfolios in their art section, I found Strathmore watercolor and pastel inkjet papers.   The pastel paper was light texture, 80 pound, $12.99 for 25 sheets.   The watercolor was medium texture, cold press finish, 115 pound, $14.99 for 8 sheets.   With the 40% coupon - $8.99.  For a little over a dollar a page, I thought I would give the watercolor paper a try first.

And several tries, I did.
It just kept rolling straight through my Epson 410 XP $99 special printer -- and not printing!
Online reviews have everyone singing  praises about how they can use it to print on all kinds of media.  I tried adjusting the printer settings for media, paper - still just zip, zip rolling right out.  

Paper on top of regular copy paper?  The Strathmore paper ran right through, and then the Epson printed on regular paper.   Granted it did a good job looking watercolor-y, but it wasn't on the watercolor paper.

Then I tried stacking two sheets of Strathmore in the feeder tray.  And again...one, two - run right through.  

I'm almost ready to give up -- but saw in the printer queue there was still one waiting.

This time I held the paper in the paper tray and as it tried once more to grab and run, I gave it just a little tug back and...

I heard the printer start printing!!

Color (print) me impressed!

 Clockwise from left - copy paper, Strathmore watercolor paper, original

I was starting to run low on some of the color cartridges, and I later discovered the option to adjust the size - which would be "custom" to keep the original size and not "fill".  But actually it didn't really distort it too much.   You can definitely see more of the shading and details on the Strathmore watercolor paper compared to the copy paper.

The prints were made from a photograph of my original watercolor.  Next time I will try to copy the original directly on the printer.  I'm not sure if the colors were changed by printing from iPhoto or from the printer.

Another time, another coupon --  the lighter weight pastel/watercolor 80 pound paper, perhaps for stationery and cards.