Magnani Paper Swatches

 I was asked to do some Magnani paper trials for the Calligraphy Society of Victoria.

These are my results.

S U M M A R Y

The papers are beautiful to touch and work with. Some were more responsive to others given the media and the tools used. I included erasing lines as this is so common in our work and I also included embossing. The papers I like the most for the more painterly techniques that I use are almost all of them as you can see glimmers of painterly swatches with and without gesso. They work exceptionally well even the lighter weights, which took on a slight cockling.

The best of the Magnani in my opinion for formal pen, ink, gouache and gilding work would be the Revere Platinum (standard white RPT145WH) 100% cotton 145gsm & the Velata Avorio (VEL 120) wove, alpha, 120gsm & the Vergella Arvorio (VERG115) laid, alpha 115gsm.

Whilst these Magnani papers are all good for specific purposes, the papers I would like best for my personal use where I use a lot of wet media in the grounds are the two Corona, the Revere Platinum 300gsm, the two Acquerello hot and cold press and strangely enough I love the Annigoni but I would limit the wet media I place on this paper.

Some of these papers are excellent for printmaking and embossing. Perhaps the Pescia would fall into this category.

For pointed pen work I trialed both upright and angled and found most of the papers lacking for very fine pen work. From the swatches and what little I did with the pointed pen I found most papers worked in varying degrees of success but, the most responsive were the Revere Platinum 145gsm, the Velata Avorio 120gsm, the Vergata Avorio 90gsm and the Vergella Avorio 115gsm.

Where to purchase these beautiful Magnani Papers, click here!

N O T E

Noodlers ink. I quite like the Noodlers ink particularly for washes and stronger grounds. As you can see it has behaved very badly when used with a Brause 4mm and worked thickly onto the paper. I suggest therefore, this ink is never used in a book where the pages agitate each other as you can see it offsets at the lighted touch. And to add insult it blurs when sprayed for protection.  I primarily use Noodlers ink in my Lamy Safari sketching pens without a problem with smudging and I mix it with media such as gesso, matte mediums, molding pastes and crackling pastes for works on canvas, paper and mdf board. Thinner washes do no behave this way with the Noodlers ink but lesson learnt, proceed with care.