Which Paper Do I need?    You can find papers ranging in price and quality. There are pastel pads which are fairly inexpensive and loose sheets of paper which include specialist papers, such as pastel boards, cards and sand papers. You can even use watercolour paper that is rough. Some artists prefer to use watercolour paper, as they can paint a wash over the paper before they paint on it and also the tooth is more random than that of a 'pastel paper'.

Whichever you choose, you need to have a tooth on the paper. That is, paper with some depressions that hold the pastel. If you used a smooth paper the pastels would slide over the paper and look shiny and you wouldn't get any texture into your painting. They'd go kind of muddy looking.

This is Canson pastel paper and shows the 'tooth' of the paper.

If you are just starting off, I would probably advise you to get an inexpensive pad that you can experiment on and a loose sheet of better quality paper. Then when you've got used to the pastels, you have the paper ready for your first main painting.

Another quandary when choosing paper, is the colour. There are many shades to choose from. I think this is another area that is down to trial and error, to see how the colour interacts with the colours of your pastels. Some artists like their paintings to be fresh and vibrant and will only use cream, whilst others like the contrast of the paper to the colours of their painting, or like the paper to work for them. Coloured paper can also add a mood or feeling to your painting.

First of all, decide what your painting will be about and which colours you are going to use in it. Then try to decide if you want the paper to act as a mid tone or as a shadow or a highlight. If for example, you have the majority of the painting as sky, you might choose a blue, or for a field, a green. Or if it's buildings and tarmac, you might choose a grey. If it's a snow scene you might like to choose a shade of blue, or a blue/grey in a dark tone, which would make the white snow really stand out. If you are unsure, you could just choose a cream paper. One good thing about purchasing a pastel pad to begin with, is that it usually comes in four colours, this will give you a chance to experiment first.

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