Painting?…
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What can I paint pastels on, you may ask? As always, you have choices. You can always start on sandpaper for instance. However, watercolour paper is fine as you can put a tint on it first with any water based paint. To obtain a good texture, how about covering your paper with a good gesso or acrylic paint first.
Now, there are plenty of papers sold in the shops which are pretty standard, suitable for everyday needs. They also come in many different colours which you can try and experiment with. Even sandpaper comes in different colours and textures.
As for the types of papers to use, one ideal paper would be oil sketching paper. Good for oil pastels, as it is similar to a canvas type of surface. Failing that, you could use Mineral spirits can be used to correct any errors you might make. It acts like an eraser.
You can use both sides of the paper of Mi-Tientes for oil pastels but it is thicker than Ingres paper. Ingres paper is quite strong and adaptable. It works very well with your paint and mineral spirit.
Mi-Tientes paper I love simply, because both sides of the paper can be worked on. One side is smooth, namely the wrong side, with the right side having a definite texture to it. Now, as for using mineral spirit? I do not recommend turpentine as it could rot your paper, being a bit on the oily side. However, if you use a good mineral spirit with your paint, it spreads the oil pastels fairly easily without ruining your paper.
Or you could use Soft Pastel paper which has a backing to it made of fibre glass. The front side being like a pastel cloth, but obviously it is very strong, as it is of a sort of synthetic type content which you can also underpaint.
Flour Paper is terrific for pastels, usually obtained only in small sheets.
Large sheets of Artists’ Quality Sandpaper can be bought in a natural colour. You are then faced with only two other choices, Wet or Dry Sandpaper which it is also possible to lay a wash on. Personally, I would recommend type 400, and these sheets come in Black.
Velour paper has a coating to it which looks powdery. This is ideal if you have a painting with a lot of work on it, as it retains the colour pigments.
“Not” is a water colour paper which you can only buy in white. However, you can use this by tinting with acrylics and water colours, creating a dry wash of pastel.
We always need to keep trying to achieve different and better results. Recycled paper is also very popular, but in general try to always buy acid free paper if you want your colours to last. In the art shops you can buy pastel papers on mat boarding. Therefore, these are ideal for pastels with much paintwork on them, as they are nice and strong. Another good idea if you are short on surfaces to use, is regular brown non acid free wrapping paper.
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