Search for the Best Colored Pencil Paper: Part 2 – Arches Rough Watercolor Paper

After trying typical drawing paper for colored pencils (Bistol smooth/vellum, Strathmore colored pencil paper, etc.) and being unhappy with the results, I zoomed in on watercolor paper as a better option. The texturized surface and thickness of the cotton allow for more layers of color and fuller coverage.

There are so many brands and types to try, which is another reason I’m excited to use watercolor paper for colored pencil art. However, there were certain kinds I didn’t think would translate well. One of papers that I assumed would preform poorly was Arches Rough Watercolor. Spoiler alert: I loved it.

As you can see from the picture below, Arches Rough is heavily texturized. I thought it would be too toothy for colored pencils, but it turned out to be an absolute joy to work with. The toothiness was part of the fun of application.

Here is my test strip, using the following brands of pencils: Carand’Ache Pablo, Caran d’Ache Luminance, Faber-Castell Polychromos, and Prismacolor Premier Soft Core. Refer to Part 1 of this series for a description of the pencils.

Colors (left to right) are:

Pablo – Grass Green
Pablo – Cobalt Blue
Luminance – Orange
Polychromos – Indanthrene Blue
Prismacolor – Dahlia Purple
Prismacolor – Spanish Orange
Polychromos – Cobalt Blue
Polychromos – Light Green
Luminance – Scarlet
Polychromos – Light Yellow Glaze

The verdict: all of the pencils performed well on Arches Rough. The wax-based pencils (Luminance and Prismacolor) worked the best. They applied like butter and resulted in full coverage. I was also able to get full coverage with the oil-based pencils (Polychromos and Pablo), but it took a bit more pressure. The paper allowed for multiple layers of color for each brand of pencil.

I will definitely keep Arches Rough Watercolor Paper on hand for colored pencil art. It isn’t a great everyday paper due to its unique finish, but it will be great for projects where you want to draw focus to highly-texturized objects.

Stay tuned for Part 3 on Stonehenge Aqua Cold Press watercolor paper!

Scrapbook of Scraps Progress Report #1: Manual Die Cutting

Manual die cutting machines and nesting dies are a great investment if you enjoy papercrafting projects. My creative world totally changed when I got my Spellbinder Platinum machine and saw how perfectly uniform I could make swatch cards, easily cut different shapes of paper, and, relevant to my scrapbook project, make tiny frames for tiny pictures.

Let’s start with the dies…

You will hear me talk about Waffle Flower a lot. They are a US company that works with designers to create unique stamps, dies, and other papercrafting products that you truly can’t find anywhere else. Today, I spent the afternoon cutting frames for my Scrapbook of Scraps project.

*Frame made from Astrobrights cardstock.*

After I made several frames, I got out some of my scraps to see what interesting compositions I could make with my sheets upon sheets of color-tester splats.

*A bunch of QoR Watercolor splats waiting to be put to good use*.

QoR watercolors are super-vivid so this page of tests has lots of potential to chop up into teeny-tiny pictures. I love the way the colors flow on this particular section, but I felt like it needed some Finetec Iridescent Watercolors to make it SPARKLE. Note that I haven’t glued the frame on yet. I was just using it to find my favorite color composition.

After I added some shine and let the paint dry, I cut it the little section out and glued it onto the frame.

*Look at the sparkle! It reminds me of an eyeshadow pallette.*

Here are two others that I finished today. These are re-purposed Sennelier test strips.

I haven’t glued any of them in my scrapbook yet because I’m not sure where I’m going to place them. Plus, I didn’t want to deal with anymore glue on my hands.

Stay tuned for my progress on the Scrapbook of Scraps!

Quick Color Wheel with Polychromos Pencils

I wanted an excuse to play with my new set of Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils so I did a quick color wheel for a ROYGBIV study.

Cheap bullet journal stencil sets have been an invaluable tool for making color swatches. I found a set on Amazon that was perfect for color wheels and this was the result. It took about two hours and I’m happy with the result.

Making a Scrapbook…Out of Scraps.

I have a seemingly endless pile of color-test scraps in my studio that I couldn’t bring myself to throw away. They are so bright that it would be a shame to see them in a trash can.

Papercrafting is one of my other favorite hobbies so I decided to assemble a scrapbook comprised primarily of literal scraps.

A tiny selection of my mountains of scraps

I chose a Ranger Dylusions Flip Journal because the pages are made of thick cardstock that will accept water and ink. I haven’t tested it yet, but I’m fairly certain that it won’t buckle or bleed based on the thickness and texture of the cardstock. I also liked it because it has a thick outer sleeve with an envelope attached to the inside. My only complaint about the journal is that the right-side corners are rounded which makes it difficult to put a decorative border on the edges.

I wanted to put a bright border on the inside and outside covers, so I painted ROY G. BIV squares using my beloved Sennlier L’Aquarelle paints on a long piece of Strathmore watercolor paper. I didn’t want to use thick cotton paper because I wanted to be sure the covers closed correctly.

Highly-pigmented, smooth, gorgeous Senneliers.

After the paper dried, I cut some 1″ wide strips to glue on the edge of the covers. It’s not perfect – I blobbed glue too heavily on one of the strips – but, despite the glue disaster, it turned out well.

Glue splat: lower left corner of the strip. *facepalm*

Close-up of the inside cover. No glue blobs. I learned my lesson.

I’m probably going to put a few more things on the cover, but this was a fun Saturday project. Stay tuned for my progress!