It's Not You, It's Your Paper! Tips for colored Pencils & Paper

Starting a drawing with color pencil on really nice cold press, and then instantly thinking just NOOOOOOO!!! - Yep, we have all done it. 😅 The bird still turned out lovely though! Paper I like for color pencil are Strathmore Toned Sketchpaper, Strathmore Visual Journal Mixed Media, Fabriano Studio Hotpress, Clairefontaine Paint On and Canson Mi-Teintes. Also, a good piece of just regular run of the mill white drawing paper goes a long way.

I’m still intimidated by colored pencils but did make a stamped card with my husband using them. That was nice to do together. He doesn’t Art at all

schut artist drawing paper 225 (red) is by far my favorite for colored pencils. It is a lesser known Dutch brand but I love this paper and it is great for mixed media due to the heavier weight. I was extremely happy when I found it back online, after my local art shop stopped selling it.. it always sparks something in me. Although I don't draw or sketch as much. I am a colorist and coloring books always are a hit or miss so I decided to stick with one brand.. because a coloring book with bad paper will be in the naughty corner and collect dust.

Arches Hot Pressed paper is my go to paper for detailed work, I also love pastelmat for furry animal subjects, especially if I want to add a background in Pan Pastels. Stonehenge isn’t the easiest paper to get hold of here in the UK unfortunately!

I think you would be amazed how many people think the right paper for the right product is not important. A few weeks ago at my art group when we were working on a project we were given some black paper which was more like card stock to do some blending with coloured pencils. I was using my chameleon colour tones pencils that I have had for a few years now and the paper really wore them down.

They're both pretty, but the info is very helpful to make them less frustrating to do. Thanks so much.

I have a lot to learn about paper. I appreciate it when you share your knowledge.

After you mentioned the alcohol marker blenders for blending, I tried my Tombow blender on my Polychromos and was pleased to see how well that works! Thank you!

How cool! I never would've thought of using an alcohol marker to blend pencil. 😊

Thank you for posting. Love the bird came together very quickly. Cherry was a fun watch too. Aww favourite paper for pencil Mi Tides love this paper for pencil im addicted to using the buff/ soft yellow as backgrounds. Something about this colour I love. Have a great rest of your week.

Love colored pencils, I have been doing a lot of coloring book pages to teach myself shading, I just bought a small strathmore vellum sketch book from Amazon when they had the sales, I want to draw some simple things, I drew a fox & didn’t want to mess it up so it’s sitting uncolored for now silly I know. Thank you for showing colored pencil work today.

Just love watching you do colored pencil. So fascinating.

I have some hot press Arches paper that I don't much like for watercolour, but I enjoy it with colour pencil. The cherry looks fantastic, but I love the bird as well. It looks so sassy!

this looks fantastic, it looks wonderful ❤❤

Love watching you paint or draw! I recently bought the 150 Prismacolor set of pencils that were on sale and can’t wait to use them. Thanks for the tips on papers to use and also to use the colorless blending markers❤️

You are a fantastic teacher. I love art and crafting but knew very little about how to use color or paints. Artist I am not. I have been following you for several months and now understand so much about color, blending, art media (papers, brushes, paints) than I have ever. Thank you for being patient and caring in your presentation. You make me less intimidated about trying.

I love Bristol Smooth paper from Strathmore for colored pencil work. But I don't do much colored pencil anymore because of my carpel tunnel.

Strathmore toned tan and Canson black papers are my favourites for coloured pencil, followed by any hot press watercolour paper. Sometimes I put down a layer of gesso beforehand, it makes the colours pop, but it does wear down the pencils quite a bit.

Hullo Lindsay, I really enjoy watching you work. I like Legion's Black watercolor papers the Cold Press and Hot Press! I purchased full sheets of Shizin papers after I bought Rosi's light and dark series sketchbooks with Shinzen pastel papers! they have such a unique surface and it really works in most every medium I have used on it! I love the different colors too, it saves me on backgrounds so MUCH! I have become more open to mixing my mediums after watching your videos! I have used watercolor pencils on my watercolor paintings in the past, yet I never thought that was mixed media! Now watching s omany artists like you use everything together is just so eye opening! Thanks for keeping all of us going!

Thanks for the comparison Lindsay. Wouldn’t have thought to use either of these papers for coloured pencil work. Love that glossy sheen on the cherry.