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SURFACES -   White (and Ivory) Paper, Card and Board

 

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 a fine line (with low colour density) and the need for denser colour (which loses the 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.

Watercolour papers with a high level of size on the surface tend to have a harder surface and are more suitable for the harder pencils

such as Derwent Drawing and Faber Castell Polychromos

The final 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.

 

If you would like a more ‘in depth’ look at paper and how it is constructed, there is more in the first part of the ‘Stretching paper’ section, where we look at how paper reacts to water and how why we may need to stretch it on a board before we start to use it

 

The section below first looks at papers available in the UK and then goes on to look at some papers available in Europe and the United States and Canada.  I have no information at this time ( July 2011 ) of specialist and locally made papers on sale elsewhere in the world that may well be suitable for Coloured Pencil.  If you know of a good ‘local’ paper, please let me have details.

 

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 - thicker paper weighs more, thinner paper weighs less.  You can work good coloured pencil on quite lightweight cartridge paper, but the heavier ones will respond best to erasing and scratching with a knife. Cartridge is not ideal for any wet process (see below).

 

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’ - and for any wet treatment, the paper should be a ‘watercolour’ paper, suitably sized to take water and handle wet media.  

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 - on the surface. There is more on Watercolour Paper below -

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.  See notes on Coloured papers regarding the lightfastness of coloured cards and papers

 

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 - now branded as Fabriano 5  or Classico 5 in some catalogues -- is a good all round paper.  

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 - of which more elsewhere.

 

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  -  BUT be warned !    It does not handle graphite pencil well, so graphite should be avoided for drawing out your image. If you do use Graphite, any erasing will spread the black far and wide !  CP can be removed without problems though.  I have used this paper for several pictures and it works well once you get used to it.  It is on the soft side, but the results can be good.  The bamboo paper has a creamy appearance.

 

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-over also raises the surface texture slightly and that can be a benefit.

 

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. If you find you have a problem, try using a short staple cotton paper.  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.   Another solution might be to use a solvent like Zest-It to settle the colour back into the surface and eliminate the white flecks ( see elsewhere on the site for more information on solvents).

 

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.

Somerset Velvet from St Cuthberts Mill in Somerset, is an excellent print paper for Coloured Pencil and comes in a variety of weights.  This is an archival quality paper made expressly for printmaking and drawing and comes in several weights from 250gsm through to 330gsm and different surfaces. The Satin is very good for CP.  The Black Velvet paper is also lightfast.

Some artists like to work on coloured and grained surfaces, and Canson pastel Mi-Teintes paper is a favourite, but Daler Rowney Murano pastel paper makes a reasonable alternative and comes in a range of colours.

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 for dry point pencil is standard mountboard, which has a good surface and is also acid free, so will tend to resist yellowing and not disintegrate with age.  

A good inexpensive mountboard to try is Daler-Rowney Studland (Polar White). It is conservation quality, It is smooth enough for fine detail but has sufficient 'tooth' for CP and pastel. I find that Mountboard will not take too kindly to a wet process, though, as it is not sized, so is not as suitable for watercolour pencils.  Mountboard types have different surfaces so you need to be selective in the one you choose. The more patterned surfaces will suit pastel pencil better and the colour range will offer a wide number of options

Daler Rowney also manufacture a specialist Illustration board surface, similar to mountboard but designed for artwork.   

The board is sold with both Cold Pressed and Hot Pressed surfaces, and I am advised that the cold pressed is the most suitable for CP as the Hot pressed is too close to Bristol Board. Illustration Board is often used by professional artists, but can be an expensive alternative for the amateur.

Heavier weight boards include Museum board ( more generally available in the USA ) 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 designed to be used for Pastels.

These have the advantage of being able to take many many layers and build up very strong depth of colour, but bear in mind the cost of the special surface and the extra cost of the extra Pigment you will use !

CP can also be worked on Polydraw drafting film but this relatively smooth surface will need gentle handling and a light touch otherwise the pigment will rapidly saturate the surface.  

     More on these special surfaces on the adjoining ‘Other Surfaces’ page

For more about Stretching paper  see the last page of this section.

 

 

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.

 

Through most of Mainland EUROPE, the UK manufactured papers from Winsor & Newton, Daler Rowney, Arches, Clairfontaine, Fabriano, Hahnemuhle, and others familiar to the UK artists, will be available.  ‘Great Art’ ( Gerstaecker Group ) - also trading in France as "Géant des Beaux Arts" - offer a wide range of papers in sheets, pads and roll form.  

If you are looking at an unfamiliar brand and surface, look for the magic words ‘ Hot Pressed’,  ‘Satin’  or ‘velvet’.  

Cotton based papers will be more expensive than wood pulp ones, but will withstand aging much better.  

Sized paper is more suitable if you are intending to use any water on the surface.  

Bleaches used in papers can have a long term effect in shortening life so many archival papers have a creamy natural look.

 

In the USA and CANADA, many of the internationally known papers will be available.  One of the major distributors of high quality papers through the American sub continent is Legion Paper of New York.  They import and market European papers ( including Somerset, Arches and Saunders Waterford listed above) as well as a wide range of other USA papers ( such as their own ‘Rising Stonehenge’ ) and a portfolio of Italian printmaking papers, German speciality papers and some from Japan.  

For more information on the papers Legion distributes, see their website at  http://www.legionpaper.com/Sample-Department.htm

Samples are available at a modest cost and a majority of the suitable papers for CP are included in the samples for Drawing papers.  

There are two ranges of Drawing paper 8ins x 9 ins samples which cover over 60 paper types.

 

Readers in other parts of the world are invited to add to this list of suitable papers and sources of paper by making contact with me.

Latest revision July 2011

The surface you work on can be almost as important to the end result

as the medium you use.

This section includes pages on Paper and Card ( below),

other types of surfaces, and a page on stretching paper