Featured Artist:
Tracy Kaser
Brewster, OH
Prismacolor® pencil on Strathmore® paper
The Paper We Use
By now, since most of you know that my paper of choice is 2-ply Strathmore ® 500 Bristol board with a vellum finish, I would like to tell you a bit about why I choose this paper and some of it’s characteristics that make it desirable in the work we do.
Bristol – compressing two or more pieces of paper together creates Bristol board. The more paper used, the heavier the weight of the board.
2-ply – this indicates that 2 pieces of paper have been compressed to make one sheet.
500 Series – the number 500 indicates the quality of the paper. Strathmore is one of the makers of high quality art papers that range from newsprint to fine archival papers. Their Bristol boards are graded according to the numbers 200, 300, 400 and 500.
- 200 series is considered an economical student grade the weight is 100#.
- 300 series is slightly higher quality than 200 series student grade the weight is also100#.
- 400 series is a high-quality multi-ply board that comes in 2, 3, and 4 ply boards. It is considered student grade since it is not 100% rag paper.
- 500 series is a high-quality multi-ply board that comes in 2, 3, and 4 ply boards. It is an acid free100% cotton paper. I have found that the board that is used in tablets is not the same as the board sold in sheets. The surface of the paper in the tablets is less desirable to work on so I prefer the paper sold in sheets.
Vellum surface – also called vellum finish, refers to the texture of the paper. Vellum surface has a toothy finish that is excellent for pencil.
This paper does not yellow over time, it holds up to repeated erasing and works extremely well for both graphite or colored pencil drawing since the tooth is deep enough to hold multiple layers of pencil. Being acid free, the paper will not oxidize (which causes yellowing) and it will not destroy the medium that has been applied to it.
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