UArt Premium Sanded Pastel Paper Tial Pack

Product Information

Mi-Teintes Touch sheets retain all dry pigments because they have micro abrasive surfaces created by a sanded primer. Mi-Teintes Touch is the ideal support for dry pastels. In addition to being particularly suited to layers of pastels Mi Teintes Touch also works well with wet media and can be used in mixed media applications that combine wet and dry media. The paper feels soft and is gentle on pastel tools, such as sponges. Pastelmat’s coating is water resistant, so artists can paint with wet media. This surface is excellent for holding colour in place and is available in 4 grades – 400, 500, 600 and 800. 400 is the coarsest and allows you to build up the most layers. 800 is the finest and is the only one that you could blend colour with your finger; it’s also suited to crisp, fine, bright marks of pastel pencil, and is great for detail. It is resistant to water and alcohol. This paper has a natural curve and may need to be taped down flat to work on it. Next I tested a variation of Pastel Pencils, starting with the Faber Castell Pitt Pastel, then the Derwent Pastel Pencil, Koh-I-Noor Pastel Pencil, the reliable Stabilo CarbOthello and finally the Conte a Paris Pastel Pencil. With all pastel pencils, there was various levels of hardness from the cores, but regardless, they all performed beautifully and it was really difficult to select the best performing pencil. With each pastel mark I made I used a paper blending stump to blend the pigment into the paper and the results were incredibly satisfying which I feel was down to the velvety sandpaper texture. Graphite and Watercolor Pencils Many fixatives darken pastel colors. SpectraFix doesn’t as long as you apply it in VERY light layers. I use a fine mist sprayer to make sure I don’t get heavy droplets. Ideally, spray your work several times while you work. This helps the pastels to adhere to the paper better long term. Over the years, pastels start to dust off your paper. Not generally to the point where the work totally disappears, I don’t want to freak anyone out. It’s not THAT bad, but if you look at framed pastel work that isn’t sprayed with any fixatives, you will notice a dusting of pastel on the inner mat. A fixative will help to minimize this. It also will help seal previous layers down for better layering. Tip #3 Size

Most local stores would be able to help you with just what you are looking for if you’re constrained by a tight budget. I think many of us started on Canson Mi-tientes until we got the feel of pastels, then graduated to sanded papers for the possibilities of ability of putting on multiple layers, and the ability to do wet underpaintings, etc. While the resulting jagged pencil tip is unlikely to damage UART pastel paper, breakage is a nuisance, so instead of sharpening often, I used my colored pencils almost like pastels: blunt, with medium to heavy pressure and firm strokes. The first layers were applied at 5 to 7 on the pressure scale. Each layer was applied more heavily than the one before. The coating is resistant to small amounts of water and alcohol and it’s not advised to scrub water into the surface. Artists can use mixed media on this paper, but Pastelmat is more suited to working with mixed media. This paper has more tooth than Pastelmat, you don’t need to apply much pressure at all for the colour to be released onto the paper. This means fewer layers are required to build colours and achieve vibrant, rich effects. Sennelier Pastel Card They are not good to breathe so set up an area outside if you can and spray in that. I like to use a cardboard box.

She tests two types of pastels on three different surfaces – Mi-Tientes, coated PastelMat and sanded Fisher 400. Try the actual demo painting using her colors, or substitute more muted ones of your choice. Whatever you do with it, stay consistent with colors across the different surfaces. If you try this demo on small pieces of different papers, it’ll help you get a good idea of what you like best, why, and what works best for you.

Acrylic gesso mixed with one of the Derivan Matisse dry powders which include a variety of sands, crushed stones and powders or with marble dust The ribbed ingres texture of the paper is what gives it its tooth. It’s one of the most lightweight pastel papers. The cellulose fibres are durable and withstand reworking and correcting areas of pastel. Made from a cylinder mould in Germany, the papers come in an assortment of colours and formats. The paper is on the cheaper side, so it’s great for artists on a budget or practice work. Daler Rowney Murano

Conté

The nature of the chalk sliding off with each stroke is perfectly compatible with textured surfaces or sanded textured surfaces. The rougher and grittier the finish of the paper, the more substance you are able to see with each stroke of your soft pastel. Colourfix primer is screenprinted onto 300gsm hot pressed watercolour paper. The primer contains silica, which gives the paper its gritty tooth. Artists can buy the paper in three surface finishes, original which has a medium tooth, smooth and rough. When I thought the painting was finished, I sprayed it with workable fixative and let it air in an area with good ventilation. You’d mentioned starting with cream as closest to white. That’s what I was used to as well, but the first time I tried a gray paper I found out how much faster it was to use charcoal and white charcoal for sketching.