Stonehenge Paper Review

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VERSATILE & AFFORDABLE ARCHIVAL PAPER FOR ALL ARTISTS
"Stonehenge paper is a hardwearing 100% cotton paper for printmaking, painting, collage and other fine art applications.
Created in 1972 specifically as a 100% cotton deckled paper for the printmaking community, It was quickly adopted not just by printmakers, but by artists  across working in a broad spectrum of media.  Over the years it has gained worldwide recognition as a paper that works wonderfully across as a range of other fine art applications. This versatility, combined with its affordability, has helped Stonehenge become a popular artist paper for students and professionals alike.
Taken from the Legion website - www.legionpaper.com

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CHARACTERISTICS

GSM: ​135/250/300

ARCHIVAL: YES

ACID FREE:  YES

LIGHTFAST: YES

 Costs: RRP From: £4.75 (full sheet)

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Product Information - Stonehenge Paper

An Artist's choice

As a Graphite Artist, as well as a Coloured pencil Artist, I have found that in the UK suitable paper that has both white paper for Graphite work & tonal paper for Coloured pencil Art is extremely minimal with most of my searches leading me back to the same paper, Stonehenge - so the following information has been provided having trialled the paper using both Graphite Pencils and Coloured pencils and so is based solely on my own personal needs in my work. This paper is extremely popular with many Artists who may prefer the softness and texture of the paper and may not require extensive layering and pencil applications as I do myself.
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ADVANTAGES
* Good range of colours including black (11colours)
​* Available in 135, 250 & 300gsm
* Acid free & Archival
* Easily accessible in the USA
* Relatively Cheap
* Available in pads, sheets and 'on the roll'

DISADVANTAGES
* Very soft
* Only allows around 3 - 4 layers (Graphite) or 4 - 5 layers (Coloured pencils)
* Paper bobbling when blending (Graphite)
* Unable to create a smooth background due to the texture of the paper
* Indenting not as effective (Graphite)
* Using an electric rubber damages the paper fibres
* Few Art suppliers stock in the UK

Graphite pencils on Stonehenge paper

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With an off-white sheet of Stonehenge paper, I chose a very basic subject, a circle - the first thing I noticed was how soft the paper was and how easily the pencil pressed into the 'material like' paper.  I started off with a base tone of 2B, followed up with a 4B, 6B and then finished with an 9B in an attempt to build up a shaded area to the left side of the circle. My findings were not impressive - once the 3rd tone had been applied and blended, I could see that the paper had begun to 'bobble' slightly, so that additional applications were being blended in clumps and getting caught on these 'bobbles'.

Stonehenge 'bobbling'

Smooth paper (W & N)

As I blend each layer as I go along, I found that it simply blended all the grades together so trying to build up strong, dark tonal values became far more of a challenge, almost as if the pencil begins to slide off these underlayers.

Indents shown on Stonehenge paper

Indents shown on smooth paper (Winsor & Newton)

It is widely available in the USA where it is made, in the UK I have only found it largely available at Jackson's Art but a few colours can also be purchased at Heaton Cooper - as it comes in a range of colours including Black, this can be attractive to some Coloured pencil Artists like myself that prefer to work on Coloured paper but for my Graphite pencil work, this paper is too soft and unsuitable for photo realism Art.
For anyone interested, the smooth paper I used for this trial was the Winsor & Newton Smooth surface cartridge paper ('cartridge' is a UK/Australian term for a heavyweight paper)

Coloured Pencil on Stonehenge paper

Softness

As already mentioned, Stonehenge paper is soft. If using with pencils as I have with both the mediums, heavy applications will indent the paper and minimise the amount of layers that can be applied. I began a pet portrait on this paper and found that after around 4 - 5 layers, I could no longer add anymore as the pencil simply slipped around and made no impact at all, I ended up having to start all over again with my normal, smooth paper.
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Textured

This paper has a very noticeable texture to it and like any paper you use, you adapt to it and use it to it's best ability but for me having always been used to working on a smooth paper, the texture was just a hindrance. It does not allow you to create any well blended, smooth areas such as a blurred background and as already mentioned, there were only so many layers of pencil that I could apply before saturation and the pencil began slipping off colours already laid down.