Best Paper For Graphite And Charcoal

Rough texture is more suited to charcoal or pastels.

Best paper for graphite and charcoal.

The best paper for graphite drawings should have a weight of 80lbs or more significant. The best paper for graphite drawing should be over 80 lbs. Because charcoal is not a precision implement like let s say a sharpened graphite pencil or ink pen the best suited surface for it is one with a lot of texture akin to pastel. Similarly to graphite the hardest charcoal will give you the lightest values while the darkest charcoal will give you the darkest.

Like graphite charcoal is a form of carbon. Choosing paper for charcoal and pastel drawing is a personal matter depending on your working method and the hardness of your preferred medium. Charcoal comes in soft medium or hard consistencies. Reviews of the best drawing papers with examples.

The surface of the paper determines the fineness of detail and the range of value a draftsperson is able to create. Charcoal however is made from burning wood until the resulting substance is the correct consistency for drawing. Over the last 30 years i have used several different kinds of paper for my graphite drawings and have found each one to be unique. Printer copying paper generally has a weight of 20lbs 75 gsm.

I used strathmore 300 series bristol board pads 9 x 12 velum for this graphite drawing. Weight of drawing paper. To select the best paper for charcoal drawing you have to keep in mind the characteristics of the medium as well as what you desire out of the drawing as a whole. For graphite drawings with a moderate degree of realism a drawing paper like strathmore series 400 is a good place to begin.

Drawing painting courses on my website. A guide to drawing paper surfaces graphite charcoal ink by phil davies on 17th september 2018. For graphite or colored pencil a medium texture is best. There s a huge variety of choice in surface texture weight colour size manufacturing process and that s just within a single brand.

The key to a good dry medium paper is tooth. Paper surfaces are probably more confusing to newcomers than anything else in the supplies list. It will give you good results without breaking the bank. I used strathmore 300 series bristol board pads 9 x 12 smooth for this ink drawing.

Here are my reviews of several of them.