Thursday, December 11, 2008

R-board

Product: R-board from the local hardware store
Prospect: Watercolor painters


Sixteen Watercolor Boards for the Price of One

Watercolorists across the country agree: It's hard to beat 3/4" foamboard as a support for watercolors.
  • It's rigid enough to withstand the tension of a full stretched sheet of 140 lb paper.
  • Its extreme light weight allows you to transport it easily over rough terrain on your next plein aire painting trip - or easily bring a stack of paintings-in-progress to class.
  • It's waterproof, so you can soak your paper and lavish on the wet-into-wet to your heart's content.
  • And, it's durable enough to use again and again.
But...

The price they want for commercial art boards is shameful!

One dinky little 16X24" board - barely big enough for a quarter-sheet sketch - retails online for $X! And that's not including shipping.

But I'll let you in on a secret...

You can get high-performance 3/4" foamboard from Stone's Building Center for pennies on the dollar...and we'll even custom-cut it to size!

It's called R-Board. It's sold as insulation for houses. But guess what? It's made of the exact same material as those high-priced art boards in the catalogs.

The difference? Price, for one. Let's do the math...