Comments on: Question: What Do You Paint On?

By: Kirk W

Kirk W — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:03:48 +0000

I’ve always loved stonehenge myself…. especially for charcoal. I’ve drawn, painted, erased many times over on 1 sheet and the stuff holds up. I typically just thumbtack it to the wall and have at it.

By: David F.

David F. — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:12:44 +0000

I’m boring when it comes to this stuff. I don’t do anything exciting. When I draw, I will most likely use regular drawing paper or printer paper. Moleskine sketchbook is what I use more when I want to do good pen and ink, but (if I have it) Illustration or bristol board works well.
I paint on watercolor paper. I just keep the page attached in the pad, and tear it out when I want/ need to frame it.

By: Dani

Dani — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:55:24 +0000

Thanks for all the great comments, everyone. Kristin, I don’t stretch my paper before painting, and I’ve never tried gum tape or staples before. These are all great suggestions - I’m going to be doing a lot of experimenting!

By: angie

angie — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:26:57 +0000

I’ve been taping paper to foam board ever since I took a pastels class back when I was in college. Dani is correct that it makes a sturdy lightweight board good for drawing and painintg on plus it’s easy to cut to any size. I take the foam pieces that I don’t use for drawing boards and use them as light bouncer in photography.

By: Gina

Gina — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:14:48 +0000

I paint with gouache on hot press arches blocks. Although I always cut the sheet off the block, trim to size, tape to a board, then paint (hording the scraps of various sizes in a folder for later). I would be a little nervous painting right on the block (for no good reason really, I know it’s the more proper way!).

In the past I played with lots of weird things like scanning/printing then tea-staining but I know how ridiculously non-archival this is and don’t even think about trying it anymore. I also like doing detailed drawings on super-smooth bristol, or everyone’s favorite - moleskine sketchbooks.

By: Jared Bishop

Jared Bishop — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:54:43 +0000

I love to sketch on paper from the copier at work. As far as painting; I paint like a rich man carelessly wasting layers upon layers of Adobe’s and Corel’s finest canvases and paint. It’s very archival but can suffer from the “I forgot to back every thing up and my computer crashed and I lost everything, again” I’ll print things out on an Epson 2200 and draw or paint on it some more. You can feed some very think paper, canvas, boards though it.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:44:19 +0000

I’ve found that the best surface for anything is a surface that doesn’t fight me. For example, I hated watercolors and always struggled with paper that wobbled and warped no matter what I did. Finally I got sick of it and shelled out the money for watercolor Gessobord. It was like discovering the wheel. All my painting problems were solved instantly. For charcoal or pastels, nothing beats Stonehenge. I gesso double-thick illustration boards for acrylics, oils, or oil pastels. (it’s usually cheaper than canvas, and it still paints like a dream) I use brown craft paper for quick sketches–it’s cheap and makes getting a full tonal range very easy. Some of my friends use contact paper instead of frisket film. For paper, nothing beats buying in bulk. Last quarter I was doing a lot of charcoal and pastel drawing, and I saved lots of time (and plenty of money) by buying a great big pack of Stonehenge paper over the Internet at the beginning of the quarter. It was almost all gone by the end, too.

Be careful with the spray glue. It isn’t archival and will yellow the paper over time. Have you tried using gum tape or staples? (also, do you stretch you paper before working? As someone who can’t paint on anything other than board, I’m curious.) Gum tape and staples have their own drawbacks, but they won’t yellow the paper.

By: Judi

Judi — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:48:01 +0000

I paint on ARches 300 lb cold pressed handmade paper from France and I don’t need to mount it on anything. I paint on it like it is and there is no need to worry about it buckling. When I use the 140 lb I still don’t do anything. However if I know I am using a lot of water, I will masking tape it to my drawing board, tape comes off easy.

By: Noa

Noa — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:18:10 +0000

I’m a fan of fabriano paper in general. My favorite type is TIZIANO A4.
It’s great for colored pencils and pastel.
http://www.cartierefabriano.it/uk/_prodotti.html

also, you have an awesome blog.