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SURFACES -
The principal is ‘the rougher the surface, the denser the line’
and the converse also applies ‘The smoother the surface the finer the line’.
As CP (Coloured Pencil) work is often carried out to produce the most accurate rendering of the image (often called ‘photo realism’), the choice is one of balancing fine line (with low colour density) and the need for denser colour (which loses accuracy of line).
Underpainting is an option to get deeper colours. Please follow the link for more on this technique.
Dense colour often requires a large number of layers so the paper needs to be smooth for detail and yet still take a lot of pigment. The choice of surface is as important to this as the choice of pencil.
I suggest you practice on a range of surfaces to enable you to find the ideal choice of pencil brand and paper for you.
Test out as many individual brands of pencil as you can, and also try them out on different papers.
In general, I find the softer surfaced papers work better with the softer pencils.
Finally, a factor to consider is the whiteness of the paper. Some papers have a creamy look and are therefore low on artificial whiteners.
The paper colour can have an impact, though if you tend to work with strong colours and few areas of intense white in your pictures, It will not matter a great deal.
Starting with the thinnest papers suitable for Coloured Pencil, we have cartridge
paper which is manufactured in various thicknesses ranging from around 90gm (thinnest)
to upwards of 220gm . The number relates to the weight of a square metre of paper
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Winsor & Newton produce a range of pads in different sizes, as do many other paper manufacturers.
Anything less than 150gm is best secured on a drawing board and if you are using thin paper to work on, have a sheet of smooth paper underneath to ensure any irregularity in the surface of the board underneath is not transferred to the image you are working on.... Cartridge Paper is fine for coloured Pencils worked entirely DRY. I recommend a cartridge paper of 150gsm or 200gsm weight.
If you are intending to use watercolour pencils (Aquarelles), stretching the paper
on a suitable board is a ‘must’ -
Gelatine size, in and on a paper, stops the absorption of the water and pigment into
the body of the paper and ensures the colour stays where it is put -
The next option among purely DRY drawing surfaces is probably ‘Canford’ and other types of card.
These are more responsive to correction and tend to be around 200gm to 300gm weight with a smooth surface.
Canford has quite a hard surface and will not take a lot of layers. Nor will it take too kindly to a lot of erasing.
Canford coloured card is very useful, but test out the colour for erasing before you start your picture to make sure that, should you need to erase, you won’t remove too much of the base colour.
Smoother than standard card is ‘Bristol Board’ which has a VERY SMOOTH polished surface.
This takes a very fine line but will only take limited layers of colour, so deep tones are difficult to achieve.
This is a favourite of Botanical painters
Amongst Watercolour papers :
Fabriano manufactures good smooth papers dedicated to drawing and these come sized and in a range of thicknesses.
Fabriano Classico -
The surface has a satin feel and it is smooth enough for detail whilst taking watercolour processes.
I recommend the 300gm weight for all purposes.
This is available in sheets and in pads.
I have also used Fabriano ‘Artistico’ and the Fabriano cartridge paper ( sold as ‘Accadamia’ in different weights ) is also good for CP.
I have found that the Daler Rowney HP (Hot Pressed) watercolour pad sold for Botanical and Fine Watercolour in the Langton range is excellent for CP.
It has a satin smooth surface but a reasonable tooth ( slightly smoother than Fabriano 5 ) and is also 300gm weight so takes fair (and sometimes unfair) punishment.
Care though, as the two sides have slightly different surfaces, as I have found to my cost. In a pad, the top surface is the one with the least pattern in the grain. There is not a lot of difference, but enough to show up when a few layers of colour have been laid down.
The advantage of using a watercolour paper is that it will also handle underpainting
with either watercolour pencils or traditional watercolour -
The German manufacturer, Hahnemuhle, make a number of suitable papers, and their
Nostalgie paper is a 190 gm paper more like a good cartridge. They also make a Bamboo
Mixed Media Paper made from 90% Bamboo fibres and 10% cotton. This has an excellent
surface for both dry and watercolour pencils -
Other watercolour papers, like Arches Hot Pressed, can be used, though some CP artists suggest wiping a damp cloth over the surface of Arches before starting work, to remove some of the high level of size which can make this paper rather slippery for CP.
The wipe-
One of the problems of using a paper with a grained surface for Coloured Pencil work is the fact that in working the layers of colour, the pigment can miss the valleys in the grain leaving ‘freckles’ of white on the finished surface.
On some expensive papers heavy working of the pigment can also result in a slight lifting of the paper surface which also leaves white freckles. This can be a pain when a lot of work has been put into a picture and the artist finds that the harder they work, the more the white specks appear. I understand that this can be a problem particularly with Arches Hot Pressed paper, and I am told that this is because Arches is manufactured from a long staple cotton. Long Staple cotton is good for soft furnishings, but the long strands of cotton in paper can also result in the lifting of the staple ends with constant working.
A short staple cotton is used for Fabriano 5 and Artistico, as well as Stonehenge, made in the USA for Legion Paper, and a favourite in the Usa with soft wax pencils.
If you find you have a problem, try using a short staple cotton paper. Another solution
might be to use a solvent like Zest-
Print papers like Stonehenge (made in the USA) and Canaletto (made in Italy) have smooth, softer and absorbent surfaces which work well with softer (wax) pencils like Prismacolor, Luminance and Coloursoft. If you reach the point where no more layers of colour are possible with a print paper, leaving it a week will often enable the softer paper to absorb some of the wax and you can find the surface can again be worked.
Some artists like to work on coloured and grained surfaces, and Canson pastel Mi-
I would tend to avoid cold pressed papers like Bockingford unless you are aiming for a loose style of work with strong pigment layers.
The rougher paper will take a lot of material off the pencil but make it difficult to achieve detail.
Heavier weight and softer surfaces offer more ability to indent the surface and manipulate the way the wax is applied and for this a first choice is standard mountboard, which has a good surface and is also acid free, so will tend to resist yellowing and not disintegrate with age. Mountboard will not take too kindly to a wet process, though, it is not sized.
Daler Rowney manufacture a specialist Illustration board surface similar to mountboard but designed for artwork. The board is sold as both Cold Pressed and Hot Pressed, and I am advised that the cold pressed is the most suitable for CP as the Hot pressed is too close to Bristol Board. This is often used by professional artists, but can be an expensive alternative for the amateur.
Heavier weight boards include Museum board and also wood fibre boards (MDF) primed with gesso and well sanded smooth.
Finally there are the more exotic surfaces like sanded and grit papers such as are used for Pastels.
CP can also be worked on Polydraw drafting film.
Of these surfaces, more on the adjoining ‘Other Surfaces’ page
For more about Stretching paper see the following page
A Range of papers suitable for Coloured Pencil is available from Tim Fisher at www.thecsc.co.uk
Tim manufactures the popular Fisher 400 grit paper ( see other surfaces ), as well as marketing Stonehenge which is highly recommended for Coloured Pencil.
Stonehenge is also available in a range of colours including black.
Latest revision June 2010