my wrist hurts and it's the paper's fault, not mine

so i get my Arches block out, right, the 140lb cold press, the good one, the one i ration, and i go to paint this window study i've done like nine times now, and the sizing is just... wrong. like the wash sits on top of the paper and beads up instead of sinking in. i'm sitting there tilting the board like i'm panning for gold and the whole sky i just laid down runs off the edge onto my table.

turns out it's a bad batch. i googled it at 11pm like a crazy person and other people are saying the same thing about this run. $40 a block and it's basically coated in something. i've been fighting it for three days thinking i forgot how to paint. i genuinely started questioning my whole degree. my BFA. four years. defeated by a sheet of paper.

and the worst part is i can't even be mad at myself which is my favorite hobby. i have to be mad at a factory.

anyway i've got two sheets of Fabriano left and if the light holds i'm redoing the sky tonight. mom says return it but i bought it in like March so the receipt is a ghost. if anyone else got a bad block from that batch tell me i'm not insane

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Sol Reyes·4w

the tilting the board like panning for gold thing got me because i have absolutely done that dance, whole body leaning, convinced it's ME doing something wrong and not the paper. and that's the worst part of a bad batch, you burn a whole night second guessing your own hands before you even think to blame the block. $40 and it's basically sealed, that's criminal. i'd write to arches with the batch number, they've replaced blocks for people before when a run goes bad. sorry about your sky though. nine times in and the paper eats it on you, that stings.

Gloria Mae Jackson·4w

Mm, the second guessing is the real wound, honey. Forty dollars gone and you still spend the night thinking it's your hands. I've been there with cloth, a bolt that won't hold dye right and you sit there sure you've lost your touch, and come to find out it's the mill, not you.

Write Arches, and keep the wrapper. Batch number is printed on there, and they can't do a thing without it. I know from plenty of experience that we throw that paper away before we need it.

Dani OkaforOP·4w

ok the cloth thing is exactly it, because with fabric you can't even see the coating, you just think your hands forgot how to do something they've done a thousand times. that's the part that gets you, not the money. the money's just forty bucks, the second guessing is the whole night.

and you're right about the wrapper, i'm keeping it, it's already taped to the block. i've thrown out every wrapper i've ever had, of course i have, they go in the trash with the tape still on them. writing the batch number down from now on like a person with a system instead of a person with vibes.

what was the bolt, if you don't mind me asking? did the mill ever actually do anything or did you just have to eat it? because i'm genuinely curious if anyone ever wins these.

Dani OkaforOP·4w

the batch number thing is going in the notebook, for real. if they've actually replaced blocks for people then i'm writing the letter tonight, worst they do is ignore me and i'm out forty bucks either way.

and yeah, the second guessing is the part that lingers. i spent like an hour last night convinced i'd forgotten how to load a brush. forty dollars i can sort of absorb, but an hour of thinking my hands went bad?? that's the one that stings. anyway. the sky's gone but the window's still there, i'll just do it a tenth time on paper that actually behaves.

Kasia Nowak·4w

ok the titling-the-board dance is real and I have definitely done it while blaming my own hands, so at least you found out it's the run and not you. that's the part that would drive me crazy though, $40 a block and you can't even trust it's the paper. I work in soft pastel so I don't fight washes, but toned paper has burned me the same way, a batch that just won't take the tooth and everything sits on top and goes muddy. I started keeping a little note with the batch number every time I open a new pad now, which feels slightly unhinged but it saved me once. nine times on the same window and then this happens, ugh. sorry, that's the worst timing.

Mira Vey·4w

the batch number thing is the part of this i'd actually push back on and it's not even about you. i've never once gotten anywhere with a manufacturer, but i have had a shop eat the cost of a bad batch of paper when i walked in with the block half used and the date i bought it. the store cares more than the mill does. keep the note anyway, but the receipt and a face behind the counter beats a letter.

Dani OkaforOP·4w

ok wait this is the thing nobody tells you, that the shop has more skin in the game than the mill does. because the mill can just say "that's within spec" forever and hang up. the shop has to look at you again next week.

and the half used block part is smart, because i was sitting here thinking i'd have to bring it in untouched like it's a crime scene. i have the receipt somewhere, i think it's in my phone from the card, and i know the exact day because i bought it the same trip as a tube of cobalt teal that i've been hoarding. so that's my whole case, right there.

anyway thank you, this is actually useful instead of the letter i was about to write and never send

Dani OkaforOP·4w

ok the batch number note is NOT unhinged, that's just being a professional, i'm stealing it immediately. a whole notebook page per pad. i've been keeping receipts like a weirdo but not the actual numbers.

soft pastel though, that's a whole different beast, i feel like the tooth is everything there? like once it's gone the pigment has nowhere to grab and you can't fake it back the way you can fake a wash. and "goes muddy" is such a specific horror, it's the same death as when a wash sits on the surface and you go in to fix it and just smear the whole thing. same crime, different medium.

nine times on the same window and honestly i'm starting to think the tenth one is cursed by association lol. but the light in my apartment at like 4pm in october, i can't let it go. what are you working on right now, anything you keep coming back to?