Home › Forums › Explore Media › Colored Pencil › Smooth paper recommendations
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June 30, 2018 at 3:51 am #458235
Hi all
I’m currently using strathmore Bristol board for my colour pencil drawings (I use Faber castle polychromos pencils) but I’m unhappy with the results, the paper is very textured despite being called smooth, and I want something of similar quality and ideally thickness but ultra smooth. I do not like the grainy finish at all. What do you recommend and do you have any examples of your drawings you can share?
Thanks In advance!June 30, 2018 at 4:02 am #649433Smooth Bristol is actually a lot more smooth than a lot of people would like – most of the CP artists I know who use Bristol would prefer the vellum finish.
Paper with very little tooth would mean that your CP can’t grab on to it beyond the first 1 or 2 layers, and would compromise the depth / saturation of the results.
If you don’t like the grainy look you need to keep putting on layers. Once you got the right colour you can then use either a paint thinner (e.g. OMS) that would melt the binder of the pencil and allow pigment to get into the tooth of the paper; or a blender stick to burnish. To get a smooth finish it normally takes me anywhere between 10 – 20 layers if I use only CPs
June 30, 2018 at 5:55 am #649434I echo what Azuresong said. Your paper is considered very smooth, just short of plate surface Bristol. That is smoother. When I initially tried colored pencil six years ago I hated them because I couldn’t figure out how to avoid the white grain of the paper showing through and I thought I needed smoother paper. That made everything worse. There are a lot of people who work on Bristol, both smooth and vellum, with gorgeous results but I’m not one of them. And if they haven’t burnished or blended with something like OMS, if I look close enough I can the white flecks of the paper still. It wasn’t until this year when I tried a toothier paper and really built up color with ultra thin, feather light, layers of color that I was able to achieve the results I wanted and I fell in love with colored pencil. Smooth paper was never the answer for me. I think toothier papers, an extra sharp pencil point, and taking your time to do thin circular layers of color produces a beautiful blended result.
“I'm drawing a picture in my mind of what's on your mind. I'm a little confused in my mind, but your mind is coming in clear as hell." - John Altoon
June 30, 2018 at 6:55 am #649423If you want to experiment with paper, try Terraskin which is a synthetic “paper” made of stone. It is ultra smooth. I have done only one cp piece on it, but I quite liked it.
VenaJune 30, 2018 at 7:44 pm #649435Thanks so much for all your inputs!
I’ve learnt a lot here!! I’m self taught and had no idea about layering or blending! I think I’ll be having a little play tomorrow and experimenting
I think I may experiment with some toothier papers too but I’m curious to try this terraskin too.June 30, 2018 at 8:45 pm #649431I love my polychromas and love the feel of the way they glide beautifully on Canson Cartridge 110gsm. I can really push down to get a very deep effect. However, I am in Australia and I have noticed from posts that ‘cartridge paper’ is not a universal term.
Painting is a complete distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind. Winston Churchill
July 1, 2018 at 4:01 am #649426Thanks you for the recommendation. Cartridge is a term used here, in England. I will try some and found it on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canson-1557-including-cartridge-drawing/dp/B0018DCKWO
Penny
I live in Wiltshire, England
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” -Will RogersJuly 1, 2018 at 5:37 am #649432Thanks you for the recommendation. Cartridge is a term used here, in England. I will try some and found it on Amazon.
[url]https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canson-1557-including-cartridge-drawing/dp/B0018DCKWO[/url]
Hi ah, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do..
This eagle was done with polychromas on this Canson Cartridge 110 gsm. It was my very first go with polychromas. I cant tell you how easy it was as the polychroma pencils just glided on.. But It needed more than one covering.Good luck, I hope you love its effect also.
cheers.
Painting is a complete distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind. Winston Churchill
July 2, 2018 at 5:13 am #649421Also you need to adapt your techniques to the paper you use. If you use a toothy paper you can use more layers, but you also NEED to use more layers. If you use bristol smooth you need to NAIL it within 4 layers.. but those 4 layers should be enough to get any coverage.
Each paper has advantages, smooth makes the work faster, but also makes it more unforgiving.
"no no! You are doing it all wrong, in the internet we are supposed to be stubborn, inflexible and arrogant. One cannot simply be suddenly reasonable and reflexive in the internet, that breaks years of internet tradition as a medium of anger, arrogance, bigotry and self entitlement. Damm these internet newcomers being nice to to others!!!"
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July 2, 2018 at 5:57 am #649427Thanks, Merriweather. I will let you know how it goes. The colours in your bird are lovely.
Thanks for the advice, tiago.
Penny
I live in Wiltshire, England
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” -Will RogersJuly 2, 2018 at 6:15 am #649417I avoid smooth papers, if I want good coverage use with more layers or a solvent. The latter option makes choice of paper much less important as long as you do not use heavy pressure and destroy the paper tooth. I like toothy papers and even sanded surfaces. There are a few threads in the CP Library sub forum here that shares paper reviews or tips and tricks on how to work faster and achieve the finish or detail the artist may want to achieve, I strongly suggest reading there, I learned so much from the Library. We used to have a number of highly recognized colored pencil artists here in the forums so many years ago.
- Delo DelofashtJuly 2, 2018 at 8:12 am #649428Thanks, Delo. I will take a look at previous posts.
Penny
I live in Wiltshire, England
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” -Will RogersJuly 2, 2018 at 11:49 am #649429This doesn’t look too smooth, at all. Too hot to start anything now but will try it later.
Penny
I live in Wiltshire, England
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” -Will RogersJuly 2, 2018 at 7:33 pm #649418C A Grain is a wonderful paper, it is the similar to Bristol Vellum, but with a better texture in my opinion. It is one of my favorite papers to use with my colored pencils, you can apply many layers and get good color depth and vibrancy. The tooth of the paper is very attractive, but if you want an actual smooth finish it will allow for such with sharp pencil points used to get that tooth filled. Colored pencils are generally considered a “slow” medium, take your time and use color layers to build interesting color variety and depth. A finished work in colored pencil on such paper can take hours to complete, but it is well worth the time spent in my opinion.
- Delo DelofashtJuly 3, 2018 at 4:04 am #649430That’s good to know, Delo. I’ve applied one layer to a work and can see that it will take many to build up colour.
Penny
I live in Wiltshire, England
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” -Will Rogers -
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