Testing BEE Aquabee Paper

A dear friend of mine here gave me some Bee paper to try out when we met up for our sketch outing Saturday.  It's 93 lb paper but feels thinner than 90 lb watercolor or Stonehenge drawing paper.  It is  for pencil, pen and ink, and also claims for light water media applications.  Of course I had to do some testing to see how different medias behaved on it.

So far I have played a little with Zig Brush Markers (water soluble), Sharpie Pen, Fountain Pen with an Extra Fine Nib, Daniel Smith watercolor, graphite (mechanical pencil), carbon pencil, and watercolor pencils.

Personal Findings:

1)  The tooth grabs the color so not easy to lift without the paper scarring a bit.  I found blending the zig markers not easy to do either for the same reason where the color is absorbed into the paper.  It WILL bleed a bit with wet brush but not like it would on watercolor paper.

2)  The paper did not snag my extra fine nib on my Falcon making it a good choice for pen and ink work.

3)  Graphite and Carbon works beautifully on the paper.  It will smudge but not quite as bad as I have found on other papers.  Graphite from mechanical pencil erased with ease but not so much with the carbon pencil.

4)  Ink and watercolor did not bleed through to the back side and I was able to scan without the ghost image of the other side.

5)  Using light watercolor application (slap on and move on) did not dimple the back side bad either.  I would be able to work the other side with no problems. 

6)  If the paper was even a little damp, the sharpie pen marks feathered but I have run into that with other papers as well if not waiting until completely dry.

Would I purchase this paper for jourals?  Yes........especially for pen and ink or graphite work.  Also if I want to make journals with thinner paper.