Product Review: Hahnemühle Bamboo Mixed Media #hahnemühle #hahnemühlebamboo #zebrapen_usa

 Recently I ordered a 

Hahnemühle Bamboo Mixed Media

spiral pad on Amazon.com and liked it so much

I ordered a small pad to review.

From the Hahnemühle website:

Due to its unique surface, this natural-white artist paper is very well suited for different drawing and painting techniques as well as mixed media techniques. The colour flows beautifully and the brilliance is preserved. High contrasts and excellent colour intensity can be achieved with every technique.

Bamboo 265 g/m² is particularly well suited for watercolour, acrylic and pastel-painting techniques as well as sketching with coal and red chalk.

This paper comes in several formats and sizes.

I just may need to pick up some more!

The small pad has ten sheets. That makes 

twenty work surfaces and I am going to

use them all! 

The size is convenient for quick projects -

the small pad is 3.1" x 4.1".

The Bamboo comes in much larger sizes as well.

For this first sheet, I began with Schmincke watercolors 

(pure yellow, transparent orange and sap) 

and painted the flowers and leaves. 

These colors are from 

Wet Paint's upcoming limited edition palette.

If you haven't pre-ordered yours yet,

you need to do that.

The tin is large enough to hold 24 half pans of

color and comes pre-loaded with 12 half pans.

These are professional grade watercolors.

The pre-order price is $75.00

and that is an awesome price! 

Because this tin will jump to $235.15 

once they conclude the pre-orders.

I have my set ordered!

Interested?

Click this link.

Commercial aside -

The flowers and leaves were made with Schminckes.

Then I used a Cosmic Shimmer Iridescent 

watercolor set to make the pale, shimmery background.

I did not go overboard with the water for this one.

You know I have a tendency to do that.

Just a water brush and color.

The paper worked great!

No dimpling, no rippling, the back side looks

pristine and new still. 

Then I used a 

Zebra Zensations Sarasa Fineliner

to add the details.

The Zebra fineliner worked great on the

Bamboo and Schmincke. 

Love it!

 I moved on to some AD Markers from Chartpak

that Jennifer recently gifted me with :) .

* * * Big note here: the AD Markers are alcohol markers. 

They will bleed through literally everything. 

Just so you know. And I knew that up front. * * *

Originally I thought the ADs were watercolor markers.

Silly me. They are so NOT watercolor markers.

I just scribbled down color - 

thinking I could blend and smooth with a water brush.

But yeah, not so much.

So I pulled out a blender pen and made rows of

what looks like corn kernels to cover the streaks.

I so love the colors of these pens and will use them a lot!

 Remember I said the AD Markers are alcohol markers.

They definitely bled through and I expected them to.

The bamboo paper is 125 lbs in weight, 

so I knew I would have bleed through. 

My friend Sandra does awesome artworks with bleed through. 

She calls her art style bleedthrumanade.

I wanted to do bleedthrumanade.

And now I can. Yayayayay!!!

So this was a win/win.

I got beautiful color 

AND

a bleedthrumanade to play with!

(That is seriously hard to spell.

And autocorrect hates it!) 

 What I hadn't counted on was the depth of

bleed through I would get.

And again, this is absolutely NOT because of the paper.

It is completely due to the nature of

alcohol markers.

I was able to get two more work surfaces

with a smidgen of color to play with.

Happy dance!

(I am trying so hard to sound professional, 

but then - yayayayayay!!! color!!!)

 I haven't decided how to use this piece yet,

but I seriously love the color.

I also used the Schmincke colors here.

Working with a water brush onto dry paper, 

I used ruby red, transparent orange, 

chrome yellow deep and pure yellow. 

Banded in, then banded out.

The Schminckes are such smooth color.

They layered onto the Bamboo paper

and mixed and blended into each other so well -

even without the use of much water.

But you know how I am with water and color.

I had to try a load of water next.

I covered this sheet liberally with water,

then swished in some of the same colors

as the one above.

Then, I am sure I probably spritzed more 

water here and there, and pretty much

just let it dry by itself.

I love the way the colors merged.

And again - no dimpling or rippling even with the

amount of water I used!

 This time I simply sprayed water onto the

Bamboo, then used a water brush to add

some greens and blues from my Schmincke colors.

Not a lot of water, just enough to allow the edges

to blend but still have definition. 

I loved this one so much I just had to tangle it!

I used bits and pieces of my tangle nebula

and Michele Beauchamp's tangle popsicles.

Product wise I tangled with 

Zebra Technical Drawing Pens

and used a white UniBall Signo Gel pen for highlights.

There was something about the combination of the

paper, the Schminckes, and the Zebra pens

that did not go as easily as I had hoped for. 

The technical pens did not like this color product

on this paper. 

But I persevered. 

And I really like how it turned out. 

 In my art I use a variety of color products and I wanted

to try several of them for this review.

So I pulled out Luminarte Radiant Rain

Shimmering Mist spray in ocean wave and

sunburst.

I first spritzed on some water,

then spayed these colors right into the puddles. 

I let the color 'work' for a minute,

then lifted and turned to make a few

runs of color. 

Awesome!

So I grabbed the same spray in pink grapefruit

and added a Marabu Art Spray in plum.

One thing you can not tell from these photos

is the Radiant Rain sprays are called 'radiant' 

because they have bits of mica and sparkle,

basically a spray version of Twinkling H2Os.

I wet this entire surface with a mop brush full

of water and sprayed in my color. 

The Marabu sprays are not sparkly,

just gorgeous!

I like the combination of the two products

on this Bamboo paper!

The Radiant Rain sprays and the Marabu art spray

loved the Bamboo paper as much as I do!

I mentioned I use a variety of color products. 

Actually, I use a lot of different color products. 

I should lower my head in embarrassment at

how many types of color I have,

but I just smile instead.

Hahaha! It's all good!

I want to do a video soon of the above technique.

It involves a plastic tray, Tombow markers

and water.

The difference with the Tombow marker -

it is not an alcohol marker.

Which means it will not bleed through.

And it reacts with water, which means

you can turn it into a watercolor.

Of sorts.

And that is what I did here. 

Typically I will use several Tombow pens,

but due to the smaller size of this paper

I restricted myself to two colors.

They blend, making more shades of

color as they go. 

The Bamboo paper picked up the color

and allowed it continue blending and

mixing until it dried. 

I did not use a heat gun for this,

I just let it dry naturally.

Not my usual - because I am impatient.

For real!

 I used several pens to tangle this.

I think my favorite was the purple Copic multiliner.

Worked super on the Bamboo!

I also used a little bit of a Wink of Stella

 marker for those pink perfs.

The Wink of Stella is a glitter marker with such

wonderful shimmer and sparkle!

Worked very smoothly and got good coverage 

on the Bamboo, which is sometimes an issue

with the Wink of Stella.

I also used the Zebra Sarasa Fineliners for the black

on this piece.

And they loved the Bamboo this time.

It really does depend on the product used 

for the color underneath.

 I love the Tombow technique so much

I just had to try a few more. 

I used three colors for this one. 

 

And back to two colors here. 

And two colors here.

The Bamboo paper didn't care how much

water I used, nor how many color Tombows

I used. It didn't even care if I added more

water after I had my lifts done.

The Bamboo just accepted all the product

and water, maintained the brilliant colors

and allowed the wet to continue working.

I love it!

 My favorite all-time color go-to is

Dylusions Ink Sprays!

For the above page, I used lemon zest and

bubblegum pink. (Because pink!)

I began by spraying water onto the Bamboo,

then spritzing color onto the wet paper

and spritzed even more water. 

I didn't do anything to dry the piece, 

I just let the colors mix and do their thing.

Worked great on the Bamboo!

 And of course I had to tangle this one!

It has pink in it!

Hahahaha!

I used a set of Wink of Stella glitter pens

from Kuretake that I won from Jet Pens

to do much of the tangling.

I added in a gold gel pen from Zentangle HQ,

a blue Marvy LePen, a grey Sarasa Fineliner from

Zebra, and a Tombow Calligraphy pen.

For all the pens I used with the 

Bamboo Mixed Media paper 

and the various color products I used for backgrounds - 

the Tombow Calligraphy pen and the 

Wink of Stella Glitter Pens worked the absolute best.

Didn't matter what the background color was made with - 

these two loved them all!

 For this last sheet I used bubblegum pink and fresh lime 

Dylusions Ink Sprays with loads and loads of water. 

(Green and pink actually worked very well together for me. 

I wasn't sure they would.)

I blotted with a paper towel, 

then added more wet and more color,

then blotted again.

I did this a couple times building up layers.

I used a heat gun to dry the color,

then placed a stencil over the top and 

spritzed water through the stencil.

I let it sit for about 30 seconds, then removed

the stencil and blotted with a towel. 

I love the way you can remove color with 

a blast of water and a paper towel. 

When I selected that particular stencil,

I already had roses in mind for an end game.

I tangled with a Sharpie Fine Point and

the Zebra Technical Pen.

Both worked great on the Dylusions.

So.

How did the Bamboo Mixed Media paper from

Hahnemühle work?"

Fantastic!

With the paper being 'just' 125 lbs., 

I expected it to have a problem with the 

amount of water I use. 

Cause I use a ton!

At times!

I made myself use -

* wet into dry technique,

*a little wet into wet technique,

and

* the ohmygoshareyouserious wet into wet technique. 

I expected the first two to go very well

and they did.

(I never mentioned that I covered the front

and back of 8 of the pieces.)

Even where both sides were covered with

product, the Bamboo held up great.

No rippling, no dimpling, no warping.

(There are probably more technical terms,

but those are the ones I use.)

But

when I moved onto the Dylusions where 

I use a ton of water, 

I expected to have problems with the dimpling, warping, rippling.

I was surprised to find I had none of those issues.

Absolutely none. 

Wow!!!

And I don't understand why not.

But I am happy with the results.

Ecstatic with the results, actually. 

The Bamboo also kept the brilliant, bold, beautiful

color that I love so much!

My plans for these pages?

To fold them in half and stitch them into

a little book. 

I tangled 5 surfaces to show you what could be done.

I still have 15 surfaces to play with after I make

my little book. 

I can't wait to show you what I do!

Now I am off to purchase a little more of

this wonderful Bamboo Mixed Media paper

from Hahnemühle

in other sizes!

Have a great week!