Sorry, I’m not an experienced artist so I can’t help with any advice. I can only speak for my own preference and that is for drawing I much prefer a white background. I’m experimenting with coloured/tinted paper for my coloured pencil work but haven’t tried it just for grahite drawings. The pastel papers I’ve used so for with my coloured pencils vary in texture a great deal. The make I like best so far is Canson Mi-Tientes because it has a honeycomb surface on the “right” side but the other side will also take coloured pencils well and is much smoother. It also comes in a range of grey tones and earth tones.

J.D. Hillberry recommends the back of hot press watercolor paper for drawing. If I want a toned surface I just do a watercolor wash on the paper first. I’ve seen David Kassan pour coffee over paper to tone it. I don’t think that’s considered archival, though

It looks like Diverse carries several brands of watercolor paper. It needs to be hot press for drawing, and some good watercolors for toning are burnt umber or Payne’s Gray (very diluted). I tape or staple 140 lb (300 gsm) paper to a board so that it won’t buckle after it dries. 300 lb (640 gsm) doesn’t need to be secured but it costs a lot more money.

Strathmore makes a nice toned gray or tan drawing paper. I think that’s carried in many countries. This is from Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-Art-Strathmore-Sketch-Spiral-12-inch/dp/B008D2TUYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496173651&sr=8-1&keywords=strathmore+grey+toned+sketchbook

Jan

Hello, tryingtodraw, and welcome to WetCanvas! It is rather difficult to find gray-toned paper, especially heavy, good quality paper. I sometimes work on gray paper, and my favorite brand is Strathmore Artagain paper. It’s not very heavy paper, but it holds up pretty well to my ink and marker drawings, which is what I usually use it for. Unfortunately, it’s only available in a package of assorted tints; I haven’t been able to find a pad of all gray paper of this brand. But you find it Artagain paper pads here, if you’re interested. http://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-artagain-pads/

I have used gray pastel paper (I think it was Canson brand). It’s not too bad, but if you’re going for smooth, clean drawings, the texture may be troublesome. Upon searching a little more at dickblick.com, I’ve found this, which may interest you. I haven’t tried this particular pad, myself, so I can’t say how it is. http://www.dickblick.com/products/strathmore-400-series-gray-scale-pads/

I hope this helps. We’d love to see your drawings!

Don’t look at the geometric shapes as boring because they will teach you about how light works and perhaps more importantly, how shadows work. And the living bodies are full of geometric shapes. Eyes, for instance and heads .. arms are cylinders .. geometry is everywhere. So think about that when you get to them and don’t let yourself want to rush through it because you will run across all of it again when you get to drawing your goals.

We don’t worry much about boring here … many people look at the postings but only a few tend to comment … some are compliments only but others will make suggestions for improvement. In any case all are positive regardless of boredom.

If you are in the US another option for grey toned paper is Stonehenge, but perhaps you would find their grey too light, there is a tan how ever that is about the color of a paper bag. I love drawing on Stonehenge, it is heavier paper than the Strathmore toned papers, has a bit of tooth so should take charcoal well if you want to try that.

Anyway it is another option if you are in a part of the world where it is sold. Stonehenge is a US made paper. Though some is sold in Great Britain.