paper

Hey Lovelies! It’s drawing lesson time! Today, I wanted to talk about paper. Some people say it’s not important and use printer paper. But in fact it is very important. Maybe not when you’re just starting out, but when you’re gonna start drawing more professional, you might consider using better quality paper.

Acid Free

Acid free?! Why?! I hear you thinking, but it is one of the most important things to check if you buy paper. It has to do with the life time of your paper, how long it will last. If there is Acid in your paper, it’s most likely gonna affect the paper itself, it can turn yellow over time and becomes brittle. This goes even faster when it is exposed to light and or heat.
When your paper is acid free, you or others are able to preserve it longer. This makes the risk of damage to your artwork less. And if you are a professional artist, this is one of the things you want!

Texture

There’s a lot of paper to choose from. It’s very personal to what the outcome of the final artwork will be.
Texture is also often called the tooth of the paper. It can be very smooth with almost no tooth. This will hold less layers of, for example, colored pencil. But smooth paper also gives a smooth result.
You’ve also heafy textured paper, you can feel all the bumps in there. This is usually considered that it will hold a lot of layers.
Ofcourse there are many variations in between. It all comes down to taste, what is the result of your artwork that you are aiming for? Do you like to layer a lot? Or not at all? Also, what medium works well on those papers?! It’s totally up to you, what one artist likes, doesn’t mean you have to like it as well. Often, over time, your preference change. That’s good, that means you are growing, wanna try other things.

Below some close up’s of Paper I use.

What type of paper

There are so many papers to choose from, it’s sometimes hard to make a decision. But it already helps if you know what you wanna do with the paper before buying, do you wanna use if for graphite or colored pencil, for soft pastel or mixed media, watercolors maybe. On all papers it is stated where you can use it for, this makes you range already smaller.
It’s also helpfull to check what other artists use and how their result is on that particulair paper. This gives you an idea of how the paper acts. Though, keep in mind that your technic may be different so your result might be different as well. It all comes down to testing. Often at stores you can get test sheets of the paper, so you can feel it, draw on it. See if it is something for you.

Personal

In the end, paper is a very personal preference. For example, when I just started out with pastel, I bought canson mi teintes paper, since a lot of people I followed were using that as well. It was so frustrating for me to work on that and stopped trying with pastel. Even tho I did invest in a lot of materials. After some time I came around some different paper for pastel and tried that one, but that wasn’t my thing either. After a lot of time past I got my hands on pastelmat. This was the solution to my problems, it wasn’t my technic, it was the paper. I am able to have fun with pastel now.

This shows, what works for someone else, doesn’t have to work for you. Just keep trying and not giving up. You will find what fits your style!

I hope this blog is a bit helpful, and helps you with your art journey! It’s fun, give everything a try, and ask your supplier for sample’s, you don’t always have to buy to try paper out! If you have more questions, I am always willing to help you out!

Love
Danielle