Paper

I have used three kinds of paper since I have been working with pastel.

The first was a rough, heavy-weight(300lb.) Arches watercolor paper. I had just taken a class in watercolor painting and had bought a case of the stuff. Thankfully, the lady who taught the pastel portrait class I took after that used watercolor paper for her pastel portraits. The paper really has a good tooth and does take some abuse since it's so heavy. The one thing I didn't care for was that the texture seemed a bit too rough and was a bit obvious after the painting was done.

The second was Canson Mi Tientes. I originally used it when drawing and doing portraits in colored pencil, and later as I moved into using pastel pencil. One side is relatively smooth with a tooth which worked well for layering in the harder colored pencil and pastel pencils. However, the other side has a very regular texture which reminded me of little holes. This side never worked for me, as I always wanted to fill in those little holes with pigment. I tend to think most artist either loved that side and made it work to their advantage or hated it. I hated it and always used the smooth side. Luckily, it's pretty easy to determine which side is which.

The third paper and the one I have used the longest is Wallis paper. Made by pastel artist Kitty Wallis, it is, in my opinion, the perfect pastel paper. It come in two grades: "Museum" and "Professional". Honestly I just use the cheaper of the two. It also come in two colors: Belgium Mist which is a neutral gray and antique white. I prefer the Belgium Mist as the little flecks of white paper which show through when I paint make me crazy. The wonderful thing about Wallis paper is the tooth. It has a sanded surface and holds up to 25 layers of pastel according to the manufacturer, one on top of the other. It's very tough stuff. I have used an alcohol wash to liquify the pastel at times and the paper never buckled. I have also used the paper over again. After I do a less than great painting, I use a cheap bristle house-painting brush to brush off the pastel dust from a bad painting and use the paper over again as if for the first time. I actually like to do that because it leaves the paper toned with a ghost image on it.