Cold press, hot press and rough?

I paint on Arches French watercolor paper which has great surface quality and is very durable. One can scrub, rub, erase, load it with water and pigment and still it survives and looks great.


Watercolor paper is available in three surface textures: hot press, cold press and rough. I never paint on hot press paper. It has been rolled smooth and is excellent for detailed work which isn't what I am interested in. 


I like both cold press and rough paper. The surface texture of cold press preserves the tooth that is smoothed flat in hot press paper. This surface texture creates small puddles of pigment and allows a more broken area of color on the sheet. The rough texture is my favorite because of the uneven surface which creates all kinds of opportunities for happenstance color interactions. After the painting has dried, ridges of color collect around puddles and form fascinating little bits of paint.


This sunset was painted yesterday on cold press paper about 8:20 pm facing west with low stratus clouds looking almost like distant mountains. For contrast, I'll use rough for the next painting.