Pastel Paper for Coloured Pencil Work

By Carol Leather

If you've tried pastel pencils on the wrong paper, you'll know how disheartening it is. The pencils squeak. The pigment refuses to layer. The paper's texture dominates whatever you're trying to draw.

My own early days with pastel pencils nearly ended on a sheet of Ingres paper. I'd picked it because it was commonly recommended, spent half a session fighting it, and almost put the pencils away for good. It wasn't until I tried surfaces actually made for the way pastel pencils lay colour down that I understood what the medium can do.

This page is the hub for pastel paper reviews on the site. Four broad categories, four spoke pages with hands-on test results using Cretacolor pastel pencils and Faber-Castell Polychromos. Below are the essentials, then the four review pages, then a short section on why pastel artists tend to work on toned paper. For pastel pencils themselves, the pastel pencils hub covers brands, sharpening and technique.

What Makes Pastel Paper Different

Three things separate pastel paper from ordinary drawing paper: how much tooth it has, what colour it is, and how heavy it is. The highlight box above gave you the headlines. Here's the depth.

Tooth and texture: why they matter more here

Tooth and texture often get used interchangeably. They're not the same thing, and pastel work asks you to think about both.

Tooth is the grip. Microscopic hills and valleys on the paper surface that grab the pigment as it leaves the pencil. Without enough tooth, the pencil slides over the paper and the colour goes nowhere.

This is true for any drawing medium, but with pastel pencils it matters more. Wax and oil pencils bind the pigment together so it sticks to almost any reasonable surface. Pastel pencil pigment is loose by comparison; it relies on the paper to hold it. Choose the wrong paper and the medium fights you the whole way through.

Papers with more tooth (sanded surfaces like UART, coated surfaces like Pastelmat) hold many layers of pigment, which is what you want for the rich, blended depth pastel pencil does well. Two trade-offs: they wear pencils down faster, and the granular surface can resist very fine detail.

Papers with less tooth (traditional Ingres papers, smoother cartridge sheets) are gentler on pencils and the surface stays out of the way for fine line work. But they fill up quickly. Once the shallow valleys are full, the paper goes slick and you can't add more colour.

The right amount of tooth depends on what you're drawing. A botanical illustration with crisp leaf-vein detail wants less. A loose, layered portrait wants more.

Texture is a separate thing, worth naming because the two often get confused. Tooth is the grip. Texture is the visible pattern you can see and feel on the surface, which can become part of your drawing whether you want it to or not.

A paper can have high tooth and a near-invisible texture. Pastelmat is one of these: surprisingly fine to the touch despite holding many layers. Or a paper can have low tooth and a pronounced texture. Some traditional Ingres papers have fine ribbed lines that show through your pastel pencil work (a feature if you want it, a distraction if you don't).

When you choose a paper, think about both. Will it hold the layers you want? And is its visible pattern something you want to be part of the drawing?

Paper colour: why pastel artists tend to work on toned paper

With dry coloured pencil, white paper is the default. With pastel pencil, toned paper is often the better starting point. Four reasons:

• Instant mid-tone. Most subjects sit somewhere between fully light and fully dark. If the paper is already in that middle range, you don't spend hours covering blank white before you can start on the lights and darks. The paper does that work for you. You step straight into placing the shadows and the highlights.
• Vibrancy from contrast. A light pastel stroke glows more on a dark paper than on white. A dark stroke has more depth on a warm tan than on cream. Working on toned paper lets you build colour with less pressure, because the paper itself is doing some of the colour work.
• Unifying the piece. Even when most of the paper gets covered, the bits that show through tie the drawing together. They stop it looking like a series of separate colour blocks pasted onto a blank background.
• Mood and atmosphere. A soft blue suggests mist. A warm tan suggests evening light. The paper colour sets the temperature of the piece before you've drawn a thing.

A few tips for choosing a paper colour:

• For most subjects, a neutral mid-tone (grey, tan, soft buff) is the safest starting point. Mi-Teintes grey and Tiziano buff are both versatile choices that work for most subjects.
• Check the temperature matches your subject. A green paper under a botanical drawing of leaves can fight the foliage greens you're putting down. A blue paper under a sunset can make warm tones look muddy.
• Test on a scrap before you commit. Lay down a few of your key pastel colours on a corner of the sheet to see how they read.

Paper weight: practical considerations

Weight matters for the paper's durability under your hand, not for how much pigment it holds.

Lighter sheets (120 to 180gsm) are most of the traditional pastel papers: Mi-Teintes, Ingres, Tiziano. Easier on the wallet, and fine for practice or single-session pieces. Two cautions: they buckle if you erase vigorously or build many layers, and they warp if any moisture touches them, including a fixative spray. If you use a light paper for a piece you care about, tape it down to a drawing board on all four edges before you start. For very thin sheets, some artists mount the paper onto a rigid board first.

Heavier papers and cards (250gsm and above) include most of the specialist surfaces: Pastelmat, sanded papers, and the heavier traditional sheets. They handle vigorous strokes, multiple layers, and erasing without complaint. The right call for finished work you intend to frame.

For paper considerations specific to ordinary dry coloured pencil work (rather than pastel pencil), see the best paper for coloured pencils page, which covers weight, surface and sizing in more depth.

The Four Categories of Pastel Paper

Each of the four review pages tested papers with both pastel pencils (Cretacolor) and dry coloured pencils (Polychromos), with close-up photos of the test swatches.

Choosing by What You Draw

Three rough matches, based on the kind of work you do most:

• If you draw fur, feathers or atmospheric subjects: try velour first. The soft surface gives you natural edge diffusion that's hard to fake on a firmer paper.
• If you draw detailed realism with layered colour: Pastelmat is the default for most artists doing this kind of work. The layering capacity is the reason.
• If you want a wide range of paper colours, or you're still finding your way: start with traditional sheets (Mi-Teintes, Tiziano, Murano). They cost less, come in many colours, and the lower layer-count is less of a problem when you're still learning.

The sanded and coated specialist surfaces sit alongside Pastelmat for serious layered work. The choice between them is mostly about how you like the surface to feel under the pencil. Worth getting one sheet of each to try before you commit.

Pastel pencil paper is more particular than ordinary coloured pencil paper. The four review pages above show what each category does in practice, with side-by-side tests using both pastel pencils and dry coloured pencils. Pick the one that matches what you draw most, get two or three sheets of a single paper, and spend a session learning how it behaves before you commit it to a piece you care about.