The Ultimate Archival Paper For Colored Pencil Artists
The Ultimate Archival Paper For Colored Pencil Artists
In this post I list my top archival papers for colored pencil art and the reasons why I think this to be the case. It’s important to note that the paper I have selected for this article and video review, is based purely on my own personal experience. I am in no way suggesting that there are not better quality papers on the market for colored pencil artists. Over the past Ten or Eleven years, I was fortunate enough over the years, to have been sent and purchased many different paper types, mostly on the basis of testing and demonstrating art products being reviewed.
The main takeaway from this article is that, every single paper surface in this selection is highly archival. If you are the kind of colored pencil artist that sells their original art or would like to start selling original pieces, the papers listed in this article are going to be vital. Any paper that you use, which is not archival means the paper will yellow after a while of the client hinging it in an area exposed to sunlight.
This would mean, using lightfast art materials to be a complete waste of time. If the surface you apply the lightfast art materials to are non archival, you would only be wasting the expensive pencils. If you are not at the stage in your art journey where you are ready to sell original art, do not worry there are other ways around this which I will talk about in my next article.
Perhaps most importantly, with each paper surface listed in this article, I will explain the reasons I use that particular surface, which pencils I feel work best on the surface and the genre of art I feel the paper performs best with. Don’t forget this is just my experience with paper and colored pencils and should only be used as a guide. Even though this should be used as a guide, as with all of my reviews, you should always get a second opinion from another reviewer, check out what they are saying about similar papers and make your determination based on that.
Archival Paper No 6 - Lux Archival Professional Sanded Art Paper by Alyona Nickelsen.
The Lux Archival paper by Alyona Nickelsen, despite placing at number 6 in this list, is actually an absolutely wonderful surface to draw on as well as many other benefits; however, there is one significant reason the paper falls into this position, which I will discuss in a second.
The Lux Archival paper is actually a sanded surface, 400 grit and if you have ever used the UART Sanded surface, which comes in a seres of grit grades, you will understand how fine and slight the Lux Archival surface is. However, I personally feel that the Lux Archival surface is much more superior. The paper is 100% cotton and 300gsm a 140lb weight.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Lux Archival paper was specifically designed to coincide with the Brush and Pencil kit also from Alyona Nickelsen. The Brush and Pencil kit is a powder based blender, which reacts similar to Odourless Mineral Spirits. The kit also comprises of a workable fixative, final fixative, colored pencil touch-up texture and colored pencil titanium white. Ultimately this entire kit works best on sanded surface but the Lux Archival paper is actually designed to work hand in hand.
In my opinion, a sanded surface like the Lux Archival is absolutely perfect for harder cored pencils, for example, the Derwent Artist Coloured Pencils are very hard cored and not highly pigmented, so many artists overlook the pencils for this reason. However, on a surface like the Lux Archival, the pencil is transformed as are pencils such as the Caran d’Ache Pablo and even the Faber Castell Polychromos. I completed a pice of art on the Lux Archival Paper using a set of Caran d’Ache Pablo which I was really happy with the results.
My biggest issue with Lux Archival and the only reason it sits at number six is the cost. The paper comes in packs of 5 sheets, 8 sheets or a roll. There are various different sizes, 8 x 10 inches, 11 x 14 inches, 16 x 20 inches, 24 x 36 inches or the roll is 45 inches x 5 yards. Here in the UK five sheets of 11 x 14 inches will cost £45, five sheets of 24 x 36 inches will cost £156 or the roll will cost £273. If you wanted the 8 sheet pack of 8 x 10 inches this will cost £36. As much as I love the paper and how it allows the artist to layer, it is just too expensive.
Archival Paper No5. Clairefontaine Pastelmat
The Clairefontaine Pastelmat surface is another very textured surface, not quite sanded, but nevertheless a surface that is designed to grip hold of 30 plus layers of pastel dust. Although the Pastelmat surface was designed specifically with pastels in mind, colored pencil artists came along, gave it a try and decided, we will have a bit of that thank you very much, no need to change the name, we are quite happy to plough on regardless.
The Clairefontaine Pastelmat is manufactured in France, a thriving hub of the art world where many of the great masters before us have blessed the world with their vision and expressive brush marks on canvas. The Pastelmat surface is completely acid free, making the surface highly archival and lightfast. It is also worth noting, that the Pastelmat surface is also water resistant allowing for wet media to be used in a mixed media format.
The Pastelmat surface from Clairefontaine is available in a series of colors and tones, 16 colors in total, which provides the colored pencil artist a range of gorgeous midtone colors which allows for the effective use of paler tone pencils. Colors such as plain White, Brown, Anthracite, Sienna, Dark Grey, Light Grey, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Sand, Burgundy, Light Green, Dark Green, Buttercup, Maize, Beige and finally Sanguine Red. The above colors are available in single sheets and three different sizes, 9.5 x 12.5 inches, 19.75 x 27.5 inches and 27.5 x 39.25 inches
Pastelmat is also available in pads, which come in 7 different colors with each pad ranging from the following sizes, the largest is 12 x 15.5 inches, 9.5 x 12 inches and 7 x 9.5 inches. The Pastelmat sheets in the pads are all individually protected by glassine and the weight is 360gsm - 170lb, which is a really good weight and sturdy enough to keep hold of any number of colored pencil layers or indeed pastel layers.
You can also get the Pastelmat surface laminated onto 1.8mm board offering more rigidity to the surface, allowing for the art to be hung as is. Those at Clairefontaine state that fixative is not needed given how well the surface grips hold of the pastel or colored pencil medium.
As with he Lux Archival, the Pastelmat is a wonderful surface for those harder cored pencils such as the Derwent Artist Coloured Pencils. Coloured Pencils that sport a much harder core or slightly less pigment, traditionally don’t favour well on smoother surfaces such as Velum or Hot Pressed paper, this is when Pastelmat really comes into its own. I can’t tell you the number of artists I’ve spoke to over the years, who have purchased a set of pencils, slightly harder cores than they originally expected and placed them to the back of their studio, only to get them back out to be used on Pastelmat and experienced a completely new pencil.
Never get rid of your colored pencils, thinking they are not for you based on lack of layering abilities or pigment strength or perhaps experience painful hands and wrists. This is a perfect example of the importance of surface, I firmly believe that every pencil is perfect, once attributed to the right surface.
Archival Paper No 4. St Cuthberts Mill, Saunders Waterford,, Hot Pressed
St Cuthberts Mill is one of the most established and highly regarded paper manufactures around the world and it is located right here in the beautiful picturesque Somerset landscape of the United Kingdom. Traditionally, St Cuthberts Mill is known for its high quality Watercolour papers, papers such as Saunders Waterford, Bockingford and there once loved Whatman paper now replaced with the Millford collection.
However, without sounding rude or disrespectful, there isn’t really a dedicated paper for colored pencil artists, with perhaps the exception of one paper, so we colored pencil artists tend to migrate to other mediums and if it meets with our approval, we adopt it for our own. Hot Pressed watercolor paper is one such medium and in particular, the St Cuthberts Mill, Saunders Waterford, Hot Pressed surface.
The St Cuthberts Mill, Saunders Waterford Hot Pressed paper is 100% cotton and it is the cotton content that helps provide a sturdy archival surface to relentlessly layer and blend on without the paper breaking down. Although St Cuthberts Mill is purposefully designed with watercolours in mind, this particular surface lends itself beautifully to the colored pencil medium.
Saunders Waterford is available in three distinctly different surfaces, Rough, Cold Pressed and Hot Pressed. For most colored pencil art such as botanical, pet portraiture, portraiture and even landscape. The Hot Pressed surface is the smoother surface of the three but there is very much a tooth allowing for pencil blending and layering. The Cold Pressed surface has a much more distinct tooth to the surface and whilst this particular surface is beneficial for landscape colored pencil work, as the texture helps create texture, not many colored pencil artists use it. Finally the rough surface is far too textured for colored pencil art, especially where detail may be required.
There are so many formats the Saunders Waterford paper is available in as well as sizes. You can purchase Blocks which is a format more beneficial for the watercolor artists its intended for as the sides are glued down keeping the paper tight when wet. Nevertheless, the paper I am showing for this is a Block of 20 individual sheets and when removed from the block can be taped to a hard surface,, perfect for colored pencil art. You can also purchase the Saunders Waterford in sheets, rolls, pads and blocks as I mentioned, with too many size variations to mention.
Archival Paper No 3. Fabriano Artistico, Extra White, 100%, Hot Pressed Paper
Fabriano Artistico is a phenomenal paper, it provides a gorgeous surface when you look at the surface up close, it also looks like woven canvas. It is 100% cotton which again provides the strength to apply multiple layers of colored pencils and blending. It is that cotton content that helps to provide that strength within the papers fibres, preventing the paper from tearing after a certain number of colored pencil layers in the way printer paper would.
As with all of the companies in this list, Fabriano has a long and respected reputation in this field for providing incredibly high quality paper. As with the Saunders Waterford, the Fabriano Artistico is actually a watercolor paper and so is also available in 3 textures, rough, cold pressed and hot pressed.
The Fabriano Artistico is available in the Extra White Hot Pressed which I am showcasing here or there its a Traditional White, a slightly off white tone which a lot of colored pencil artists enjoy. You can also purchase Fabriano in sheets, rolls and of course blocks, my own personal preference. Obviously if you are intending to create large works of art, the rolls would be more beneficial.
Sizes available in the block format are 21 x 26 cm which is the smaller block, 30 x 42 cm is the medium size and finally the larger pad is 50 x70 cm. For me personally I found the Fabriano Artistico an excellent surface to work with pencils such as Derwent ProColour, Derwent Lightfast, Faber Castell Polychromos and Lyra Polycolor.
Genre such as botanical is well suited to the Fabriano Artistico surface, a velvet smooth surface with a strong woven canvas like texture, accommodating multiple layers and easy blending with your more middle of the road colored pencil cores in terms of hardness. The pencils mentioned above are not the hardest cores nor are they prismacolor type soft.
Archival Paper No 2. Derwent Lightfast Paper
I absolutely love the Derwent Lightfast Paper and I really struggled when selecting between the number one or two spot. I was fortunate enough and privileged to have been selected to be part of the focus group on the Derwent Lightfast Paper. I can remember signing the NDA with Derwent and having a few paper surfaces sent to me, being asked to test them all and write notes. Before the paper was even called Derwent Lightfast paper, I continually was drawn to the paper and loved it.
As with all the papers in this list they are obviously archival, the Derwent Lightfast is 100% cotton content and free of acid, it is this that will stop the paper yellowing and art medium being used from fading. Although the Derwent Lightfast paper is technically a Hot Pressed surface, this particular paper was specifically designed to be used with colored pencils and more specifically, the Derwent Lightfast Colored Pencils.
The Derwent Lightfast Coloured Pencils in conjunction with the Derwent Lightfast Paper are a match made in Keswick. Both products have been designed around one an other. Unlike most watercolor papers, the Derwent Lightfast paper does not come in blocks, simply because there is no real need for the paper to be kept tight while water is applied. Derwent have their own paper designed for water soluble products and in this case it is the Derwent Inktense Paper with the Derwent Inktense blocks and pencils.
Although the Derwent Lightfast Paper plays exceptionally well with the Derwent Lightfast Coloured Pencils, other pencils perform exceptionally well on the paper as well. As with the Fabriano, medium hardness core pencils perform excellent on the paper, pencils such as Faber Castell Polychromos, Lyra Polycolor, Koh-I-Noor Polycolor, Caran d’Ache Luminance etc. Harder core pencils also perform incredibly well on the Lightfast paper, pencils such as the Derwent Artist Coloured Pencils or the Caran d’Ache Pablo .
Each Derwent Lightfast Pad comes with 20 sheets of paper, each sheet highly archival, the weight of the paper is 140lb or 300gsm, which in all honesty is the size of most all papers of this quality and purpose. The Derwent Lightfast pads come in three different sizes, 7 x 10 inches is the smallest, 9 x 12 inches is the mid range size and finally the largest pad is 12 x 16 inches.
I have used the Derwent Lightfast paper for botanical art, pet or wildlife portraiture, graphite work which takes to the surface of the paper beautifully and erases perfectly when required. As I mentioned at the beginning, I absolutely love using this paper, it is perfect for almost every pencil type and colored pencil genre. But there is a paper which pipped this one to the number one spot.
Archival Paper No 1. Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate
So the Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate is the number one spot, now for a lot of you this may be confusing as heck and to be honest, it confuses the heck out of me. In the Bristol family, we have Bristol Velum which has a slight tooth to the surface but is generally considered a smooth surface. New is the Bristol Smooth and the title pretty much explains the surface, but Bristol Smooth is ideal for really soft pencils such as Prismacolor Premier, Derwent Chromaflow or Coloursoft. It’s also an excellent surface for marker and colored pencil art, a genre of art love.
Bristol Plate on the other hand is even smoother than Bristol Smooth and so by rights, not what most would consider a good surface for colored pencil layering and blending. However, the Strathmore 500 Series is all 100% Cotton Content, that goes for the 500 Series Bristol Velum, 500 Series Mixed Media. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the surfaces from the Strathmore 500 Series, they each offer a unique layering and blending experience for colored pencil art.
Although in the past I have used the Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate for fans art, alcohol markers and colored pencils, this really is a waste of good archival paper. Alcohol markers are not lightfast, only very few pens carry lightfast dyes or inks and so this non lightfast medium on archival paper is wasteful in some peoples opinions. My philosophy on the matter is simple, if it makes you happy, then waste away. But not even layering lightfast colored pencils on top of the marker will maintain true color over time in direct sunlight.
However, and I can only attribute this to the 100% cotton content, but when I have used the Strathmore 500 Series for just colored pencil art, layering and blending is effortless and endless. Subjects such as botanical or human portraiture are gorgeous subjects to complete on this paper. The softer cored pencils like Prismacolor and Derwent ColourSoft and Chromaflow perform well on the plate surface, but so does the mid hardness pencils.
Pencils such as the Derwent Lightfast, Caran d’Ache Luminance, Faber Castell Polychromos etc, also perform exceptionally. However, most confusing is the harder cored pencils, such as the Derwent Artist, Caran d’Ache Pablo and even the Tom Bow Irojiten. Also given the smooth surface of the paper, when multiple layers have been applied and blended, if fine details are required, when using an X-Acto knife or Slice tool, scraping through the layers, provides a crisp white line. This is a wonderful technique for whiskers or fur, but on slightly more toothier surfaces, the line and highlights are not as pronounced.
With the Strathmore 500 Series Bristol Plate, it comes in various Plys, which is basically the thickness of the board, 2 Ply is two sheets stuck together, 3 and 4 Ply are the other alternative sizes. 2Ply is 152lb, 3Ply is 228lb and 4 Ply is 304lb, I personally have never used the 3 or 4 Ply sheets, only the 2Ply and they come in pads of 15 sheets. 11 x 14 inches is the smaller size, the following size is 14 x 17 inches.
Strathmore market the 500 series Bristol Plate as Pen and Ink, Marker, Airbrush and mechanical pencils, like for technical drawing, however, I find this surface amazing for colored pencil work, regardless of the pencils core make up, layering and blending on the Strathmore Bristol Plate Surface is my number one surface for colored pencil work or marker and colored pencil.
Archival Paper Conclusion
As with so many things in the art world, so much of it is subjective, personal preference and so with that in mind, all of the papers in this list are my own personal favourite and I have given reasons why and which genre I enjoy using the paper for. Use this list as a guide for your own investigation into finding the ultimate paper for you and the art you love to create.
Also, don’t forget, this list is filled with mostly expensive papers because they are 100% cotton and archival. I will be adding another article showcasing good quality non archival paper as well as pastel paper surfaces and watercolour paper types. You might be thinking, why would non archival paper be any good to anyone, but we all have to learn and grow as artists, doing this with expensive archival paper when we are making mistakes and experimenting is a waste. At the same time, learning on printer paper is no good as that surface will not provide you with experience, but papers such as Strathmore 400 Series Bristol Velum will and the many other types I will be writing about in the next list.
Every single paper in this list is archival and excellent grade paper, regardless which one you use, I know you will create amazing art on them as well as develop memorable experiences, experiences that will most certainly aid your colored pencil artistic growth. Let me know in the comment section if you have used or still use any of the papers in the list, or even if you use a paper not on the list, let us know what that paper is and why you love it.
