Unleash Your Art: A Coloured Pencil Artist's Guide to Textured Paper

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​Working on highly textured or 'gritty' papers, such as Pastelmat, Colourfix, or Mi-Teintes Touch, significantly alters the behaviour of coloured pencils. Due to the abrasive nature of their 'tooth', these surfaces cause pencils, particularly softer, wax-based varieties, to wear down at a considerably faster rate than on smoother papers. To make your materials last longer and manage costs, many artists use a smart strategy: they apply initial base tones with more affordable, student-grade pencils. This saves their higher-priced, professional sets for the finer details and finishing touches, where superior pigment quality truly makes a difference. The tone of your chosen paper also plays a crucial role, acting as a built-in base. This means you won't need to apply as many layers to achieve vibrant hues as you might on white paper. However, the paper's colour can dramatically influence the overall impact and effectiveness of the final artwork. It's often worth conducting a few trials on different coloured papers to discover which tones best complement your subject and preferred outcome.

​Conversely, the interaction between the pencil's lead and the paper's texture also offers distinct advantages. The prominent tooth of these papers excels at grabbing and holding more pigment, resulting in colours that appear notably more vibrant and saturated with fewer layers. This allows for rich colour build-up and excellent coverage. However, it is equally important to acknowledge a heightened risk of smudging on textured surfaces. The pigment, rather than being fully embedded, tends to sit more prominently within the dips and peaks of the paper's texture. For this reason, employing a protective barrier, such as a sheet of glassine paper, beneath the artist's hand and over the unworked areas of the drawing, becomes an essential practice to safeguard the artwork from accidental smudges and preserve its integrity.

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Working with Coloured Pencils on Textured Surfaces

If new to working with coloured pencils on textured surfaces, this article offers valuable guidance for getting started.
This coloured pencil portrait of a Tiger was undertaken on textured paper, necessitating significant adaptations in technique to achieve fine detail. Using a Sumatran Tiger portrait as an example, this article provides advice on selecting appropriate paper types and tones, alongside methods for building up layers. Additionally, it explores mixed media approaches that can further enhance results when working with coloured pencils on textured paper.
For the Sumatran Tiger portrait, Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils were used for finer layers, while Derwent Coloursoft pencils formed the base. The background incorporated Caran d'Ache Supracolor watercolour pencils.

Texture

The coarse texture of paper varies from company to company, from the fine grit paper such as PASTELMAT to grittier paper such as UArt240. You can use most Pastel papers for Coloured pencil Art but do be aware that the more coarse papers will wear pencils down much quicker. 
Check out our UArt Dark article which may be of interest if you prefer to work on dark textured paper.

Paper tone

Textured papers come in a range of colours,  selecting a suitable tonal base for your subject can help cut down on pencil application. Choosing brown, beige & yellow paper tones for warm subjects and Blues, Grey, Greens tones for cool subjects will provide a great starting base. I used a sheet of white COLOURFIX for this subject although a popular choice, white paper is not always ideal particularly if the subject is also light and another colour option may be far more effective.

Base layers

When laying the initial base tones, it is far more cost effective to use cheaper pencils or even watercolour pencils, only using your professional pencil range(s) to build up the finer layers, especially if you are working on a large portrait and particularly if you like to add a lot of detail too. I used some of my old Crayola pencils for some of the base application in this portrait.

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Secondary layers

The secondary layers are the layers placed over the base tones before the finer details are applied. I begin to build up the detail at this stage but only layer loosely using a soft pencil range in this case I used the DERWENT COLOURSOFT but ranges such as  Prismacolor Premier or Royal Talens Van Gogh ranges are also ideal as softer leads can help to build thicker layers allowing for a quicker application in preparation for the finer details next.

Backgrounds

Once all the secondary layers have been completed, I then begin work on the background. On textured paper, Coloured pencils grab better and the pigments look more vibrant. Being unable to effectively indent textured paper to place fine lines such as the whiskers on this Tiger, it is better to create the background first and then apply the finer details over the completed background. You may have to introduce a little mixed media if you have a very dark background and need to achieve bright lines.

Fine details

When creating the finer details, I use the wax based pencil range CARAN DACHE LUMINANCE being one of the most lightfast pencils available. If you prefer to use an Oil based pencil, the Faber Castell Polychromos (another lightfast range), will create much finer lines as Oil based pencils tend to be harder and will hold their point for longer. I only use the Luminance pencils in the final layers of working on textured paper to minimise wear and tear whilst ensuring my portrait is lightfast.

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Taking regular breaks

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Taking regular breaks when creating art is incredibly important. Not only does it prevent eye strain, but stepping away from your work offers a significant benefit: when you return, you'll see it with fresh eyes. This fresh perspective can help you spot areas that need refining or give you a much-needed confidence boost as you appreciate your progress.

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Other related articles that may be of interest

Coloured pencils Checklist

UArt Dark sanded paper

Derwent blender pen

Coloured pencil mini tutorial

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Helpful Hints & Tips for  working with Coloured pencils
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Concentration issues?

If like me, you struggle to concentrate on one area at a time, finding yourself distracted often and forgetting which section you were working on, you may find that isolating a section of the drawing using a plain sheet of paper with a square cut out, can aid concentration. Simply move it around sections of your picture to keep yourself focused. Keep checking perspectives as you move it around the paper. 

Avoid smudging

When working with textured paper, pencils are easier to smudge, especially if you are working flat, with your hand constantly moving around the paper,  having a clean piece of paper beneath your working hand is recommended, glassine paper is the better options. Alternatively, if you work upright you can  cover the area with a clean towel as I did in the image above.

Using fixative

Fixative can be a great tool for Coloured pencil Artists, using it in between layers can help to seal the last layer and prepare new ground for the next layer. Colours can look as vibrant as they did on first application. There are workable fixatives that have been created specifically for this purpose such as the 'Krylon Workable Fixatif' which is archival, but I would suggest you ask around for recommendations as fixatives can vary.

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Mixed Media

Textured paper is ideal for many Art mediums and there may be times when using mixed media is better.  This was a large portrait at 50cm x 70cm and extensive use of wax based pencils on a portrait this size would wear down pencils at a faster rate than normal and a watercolour pencil can come in extremely handy to minimise excess waste.  I don't work with watercolour in any capacity but I had some old Caran Dache Supracolor pencils that had been stood in a cupboard for many years unused and so I decided to utilise them. The left side of the image above shows  initial pencil application before water was added and the right side was after water was added. Now, the background no longer overwhelms the subject and the focus is entirely on the Tiger,  as was intended.

The problem with Coloured pencils is that after so many applications, further layers can look muddy as colours mix together or consecutive layers may slip off the paper (known as saturation), to keep the whites looking bright (especially when it comes to the whiskers), I decided that the use of Acrylics would achieve brighter whites than a pencil and so completed all the important areas where an opaque white was needed and personally feel the final portrait looked more effective because of it.

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The final portrait

The finished portrait

A closer look at the painted white fur