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| 'Into the Woods' 5x7 pastel on Uart ©Karen Margulis sold |
But when we are new to pastels everything is a mystery! How many pastels do we need? What is a good set to buy? What about paper? What is the difference between sanded and unsanded paper? There are many questions and today's post is inspired by a question I received today.
"How do you decide when to use Uart and when to use MiTeintes?"
I had not really given that much thought. The choice has become so automatic. It is a great question for those new to the medium. Here are my thoughts....
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| alcohol wash underpainting on Uart sanded paper |
Paper choice often depends on both the idea I have for the painting and my mood. I love most papers for different reasons but I do tend to use Uart and Canson MT the most and I will use them interchangeably most of the time.
- If I am planning to do any kind of wet underpainting however I will use Uart sanded paper in 400 or 500 grit. Canson MT does not take a wet wash and is not as sturdy as Uart.
- If I want to try anything experimental such as adding texture with gesso and pumice or maybe experimenting with inks...I will choose Uart. It is versatile and stands up to abuse.
- If I want to paint something quick and don't want to do an underpainting or tone paper I will choose Canson MT. I like that it comes in so many colors. I do prefer the smooth side and like to use the gray tones.
Note: Like may other artists I didn't like Canson MT when I was new to pastels. I found it unforgiving. Looking back I was using harder pastels which didn't give me the soft juicy look I admired. It really wasn't the paper...It was my pastels and my inexperience.
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| 'Out of the Woods' 6x6 pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes paper available $50 |
2 comments:
That is really interesting as I have been asking myself the same question. I am new to pastels and have found this quite a dilemma.
I am in Scotland, are these papers available here? If not then do you know what the alternative would be?
I love your demo's and advice. Thank you for sharing you knowledge.
Karen Price
K Price Art
Choice of paper and pastels can sometimes be very personal. I love Canson Mi-Tientes and most of the sanded papers - but I started with M-T so I learned all its little ways including getting good results with hard pastels on it. Thanks for the tips on Uart! I wouldn't have thought of using texture or gesso on an already sanded paper, but I can see how that'd be great - especially if you want to texture an area but still have the original grit on another area. Makes sense it'd stand up to it.
I tend to use all-rag cold or hot press watercolor paper when using texturing stuff, but now you've got me considering different grits in different areas!
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