Gatorboard and Foamcore

Do you use gatorboard or foamcore as a support for your watercolours? These boards provide a hard surface on which to mount watercolor paper before beginning a painting.  The watercolorist can use artist's tape, clips or staples to secure the watercolor paper to the surface of the board.

So what's the difference between gatorboard and foamcore? Gatorboard has an exceptionally rigid surface and is very durable and lightweight. These can be large enough to hold a full sheet of paper. Foamcore isn't as sturdy and doesn’t stand up to the moisture or wet in wet watercolor technique, especially if you wet your paper on both sides thoroughly.

Foamcore and gatorboard look a lot alike. The difference is that while foamcore is paper on either side of a slice of styrofoam, gatorboard is a heavy (think oak tag) moisture impregnated paper on either side of the same styrofoam. Since the paper doesn't accept moisture, it is much more stable dimensionally. It's also just plain tougher. Gatorboard comes in black and white, foamcore only in white

Gaterboard is definitely more durable but it is the more expensive of the two. In addition, foamcoare is more easily damaged. So which do you use?

Today's artist find is Virgil Carter

Have a great day
Danielle