What Paper Is Good For Charcoal Drawing

Paper surfaces are probably more confusing to newcomers than anything else in the supplies list. There's a huge variety of choice - in surface texture, weight, colour, size, manufacturing process - and that's just within a single brand.

Here are the papers I recommend for drawing with grpahite, charcoal and ink...

1. Graphite & Carbon Pencil Drawing

Make sure you use the most appropriate paper for the task in hand. There's no need to use the very best paper for quick doodle sketches, for example.

Day-to-Day Sketches

The vast majority of my day-to-day graphite drawings and sketches are completed on standard drawing paper. Most drawing papers will be acid-free and relatively archival (meaning they won't perish over time).

I prefer spiral bound pads because they stay in one piece better than gummed pads when moving between the pages.

The brand I tend to use is Derwent's sketching paper, simply because it's very affordable, comes in a spiral bound pad and is readily available to me in the UK.

Incidentally, you may see or hear the term 'cartridge paper', most often used in the UK and Australia.

It's a term used historically for good quality drawing paper. There's a great story to find as to why it's called cartridge paper and if you google the term 'cartridge paper', you'll see why - and how one theory has it linked to the phrase 'to bite the bullet'...

I'll leave you to enjoy finding out!

Anyway, Strathmore also makes excellent papers and their 'Sketch' or 'Drawing' paper is the most affordable in their range (the yellow cover is cheaper than the brown cover).

Photo credit: dickblick.com

Most brands are available in various sizes and with the spiral on the top or the side of the pad.

Photo credit: dickblick.com

A good size is something similar to A4 or American Letter.

There are lots of brands that will be perfectly sufficient for everyday drawing and sketching. As long as you do a search for "drawing paper" or "sketching paper" on Amazon or any online art store, you can go for what is most affordable to you.

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Serious Drawings

By serious, I mean something you are either going to put a lot of time into or create as a gift or even a commission.

In this case, go for a higher quality paper that is archival. My favourite brand is Strathmore. They do a range of papers and the two I recommend are:

Strathmore 400 Series Drawing paper
Strathmore 400 Series Bristol paper (vellum surface)

Photo credit: dickblick.com

Make sure you get the Bristol vellum surface and not the Bristol smooth surface. The smooth surface has next to no tooth so you can't build up strong tones as easily. You want the 400 series (brown cover) and not the 300 series (yellow cover), which is excellent for pen work though.

2. Charcoal Drawing

Day-to-Day Sketching

My recommendation is exactly the same here. The sketching pad you choose for graphite drawing will work well with charcoal.

The only extra consideration here is size. I prefer an A3 size for charcoal because I tend to work larger compared to graphite.

Either get two pads one in each size or just get the larger size and work on half the page for graphite drawings if you want to get conservative.

Serious Drawing

Again, my recommendation is the same here. Strathmore 400 Series Drawing or Strathmore's 400 Series Bristol (vellum surface) paper is perfect for charcoal.

3. Ink Drawing

Day-to-Day Sketching

Guess what? You can use the same paper as you use for your day-to-day graphite and charcoal sketches here as well. It will keep your cost to a minimum and is what I recommend if you're starting out with ink.

^{Photo credit: dickblick.com}

Serious Drawing

Ink tends to flow better on a smoother surface, so as you progress, and if budget allows, you can go for Strathmore's 400 Series Bristol (smooth surface) paper. This paper is stunning and you'll probably only need the A4 / American Letter size (or closest to it) for ink drawings.

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Toned Paper

All the papers I've mentioned above are white. But I strongly recommend you invest in a pad of mid-grey or mid-tan tones as well. Why?

Toned paper makes it much easier to judge light and dark values. This might not sound like anything too profound, but it's the values (lights and darks) that most people struggle with in whatever medium they're using.
Working on a mid-tone can help you understand value choices much more easily because you can work from both dark to light and light to dark.
A mid-toned background creates a natural unity in your artwork.
The key to using a mid-toned paper is to have a white pencil or pen as well as the blacks and greys.

As an example, you could use black and white charcoal pencils on grey similar to this illustration of a ballerina I produced for a lesson on ArtTutor:-

_{Photo credit: arttutor.com}

Or you could use a combination of black and white pens on a tan background as in these drawings:

^{Photo credit: arttutor.com}

You could even use graphite pencils plus a white charcoal pencil or a white coloured pencil.

And if you use, or plan to try coloured pencils or pastel pencils, then a grey toned paper makes for really striking images:

Photo credit: arttutor.com

At the risk of sounding like a Strathmore fanboy (I have absolutely no affiliation with them), it's their grey papers that I prefer:-

Strathmore 400 Series Toned Gray
Strathmore 400 Series Artagain in steel gray

Photo credit: dickblick.com

The Artagain has a bit more tooth so if you use, or plan to use, pastel pencils I'd go for this paper. Both are great though.

Suggested Retailers

Finally, here's a list of retailers that we've used with success to obtain these papers over the years, with no connections other than as a satisfied customer. However again, there are many more out there and I'm sure you'll have your own favourites as well as these:-

USA:

Amazon.com
Dickblick.com
Cheapjoes.com
Jerrysartarama.com

UK & Europe:

Artsupplies.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Cassart.co.uk
jacksonart.co.uk

Australia

Amazon.com.au

Canada

Amazon.ca

Graphite, Ink & Charcoal Lessons

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This article is one of a series of guides on drawing materials for newcomers. Other guides cover pencils, pens, charcoal and accessories. Go to the main drawing materials page here.