When starting my watercolour journey I had no idea how confusing it would be. I thought at least the process of procuring supplies would be easy – after all, you simply need brushes, paint and paper, right? Well, was I in for a surprise – as I’m sure many others starting out have found. The amount of choices out there with regards to art supplies are ginormous, and, to figure out which ones you are going to need is certainly a difficult task.
Just when you thought you have tried out all types of pastel paper, along comes a new one that promises to be better. I have heard much about Clairefontaine’s Pastelmat paper, but I was a little sceptical. After all good pastel paper is plentiful. Would Pastelmat offer something different? Keep reading to find out plus check out the video review below.
Mixed media paper sounds vague to me. What is it really for? In this review, I got to find out just how versatile mixed media paper pads can be. In this case, the block of paper coming from Fabriano, a company that is well known for making quality art paper. Let’s take a closer look.
White paper is certainly the tradition when it comes to drawing and a quick browse through any art store will give you an array of white papers to choose from, for many different uses. Every one of us has, at some point, drawn on white paper, and what one learns, is to use dark lines and tones to build up the form to create a picture.
Pastels are a wonderful medium to work with. You only need to look at Degas’s sublime use of pastels in his ballerina paintings. You can work them delicately or with boldness and the colour is always powerful. The pure pigment in artist’s quality pastels is a pleasure to behold. It is a pity then to use poor quality paper on which to paint. I have tried many papers over the years of varying quality. Recently I tried out two pastel pads from Canson. Their Mi-Teintes pastel paper pads and Touch pads.
Wading through the world of paper jargon can sometimes be quite a daunting task. Considering that paper will make up quite a big part of your arsenal to produce art, it is very useful to know a little more!
