It’s a nice paper for both graphite and CP, and I like it alot. Not my ultimate favorite, but I do use it quite a bit, mostly for preliminary work. It says ‘medium’ surface, but I find it on the smoother side. A nicely bright white color without being too cool or warm.

I can layer it up nicely ( usually 8-12in CP ) if I choose. If I wanted more, it’s certainly doable. It erases well and takes dry blending nicely.

Very nice with Powder graphite and PanPastels. I have also used it with FC PITT Big Brush pens (India ink) and Polychromos on top, and it performed exceptionally well; no feathering or bleeding through the other side.

Prismacolor, Luminance, Polychromos, etc. cp all take to it like butter. Cheapy brand Spectrum Noir covered it almost as well, even a little better than FC Goldfaber did. Koh-I-Noor Woodless good but Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tone not so good.

Derwent Graphitints covered it beautifully, however their XL Graphites just couldn’t seem to catch a good grip. Derwent Drawing pencils took right to it beautifully smooth.

FC PITT pastels and Conte left more white than I liked, but with equal effort, Cretacolor and my older Derwent Pastels filled much more surface. Stabilo Carb-Othello in the middle.

I would buy it again. I’d like to see it on rolls or in full sheets like Stonehenge, etc. Colors, too.

I normally use Stonehenge and Arches HP watercolor.

Hope this helps

What a great review! Really helpful – thanks so much for taking the time to share your observations.

One query though – I’m familiar with both Stonehenge and Arches, so how would you compare the Strathmore with those, in terms of smoothness? Is it very much less smooth than Arches?