Speedball Art Products 515046 Pastel Premier Sanded Pastel Paper, 12 x 16, Slate

Very nice paper and Lovely color. This paper literally feels like a thick sheet of heavy grit sand paper. If you haven't used sanded paper for pastels before, and just have used let's say Canson Mi Tientes, prepare yourself.. This stuff is night and day difference. The only thing I believe one could complain about is the fact that it EATS pastels. HOWEVER that would be expected after feeling the paper. This heavy grit provides so much tooth for the pastel to grab on too and leave BRILLIANT and VIBRANT strokes of color. Soft (chalk) pastels blend well upon application. I used fabercastell soft (chalk) pastels and Prismacolor Nu-pastels ( in between a chalk and oil pastel). Both work lovely and produce amazing color. This is worth your time as a pastel painter.

This is a good variety of high quality paper. I almost didn't order because I was afraid it would be shipped in an envelope and arrive bent. It was shipped in a box large enough to keep the paper flat, and the shipping box was stuffed with paper as an added precaution. All is good!

This was my first time using this brand of pastel paper. I usually use UArt 400. I bought this in a medium grit (probably in the 400-500 range) and I really like it. The pastels go on smoothly and evenly. I really like the tone of the Italian Clay which is a nice neutral base. With the white, you can really affect your painting's color palette any way you like.

The grit on this paper is so fine and tight it's like their is no room in between for pastels or colored pencils. I would hate to see their super fine if this is the medium fine. I fought this paper in both mediums, pastel and colored pencils. Many people myself included use oderless mineral spirits in their color pencil paintings. On this paper the moms just seemed to make the color pencil disperse not meld together like normally it would. As for pastels I went to get a soft pastel background like I usually do but when I went to blend half of the pastel would not stick to the paper. It was like their was some kind of resist in a sort of animal print-ish pattern. In order to get it to stick you have to resort to only Mark making and very little to no blending. I don't know if I just got a bad batch or what the problem was. I hope they read this post so maybe I can find out or see if they have a rough paper. Maybe that would work.

This was my first time using this brand of pastel paper. I usually use UArt 400. I bought this in a medium grit (probably in the 400-500 range) and I really like it. The pastels go on smoothly and evenly. I really like the tone of the Italian Clay which is a nice neutral base. I also bought the white.

My Pastels Instructor suggested I try my most recent piece on the Sanded Pastel Paper. I like the fact that my soft pastels (as well as hard pastels make the picture bright. I would recommend this paper highly, especially if you use the soft pastels.

Great for color pencils and Oil pastels.

This is excellent pastel paper. It holds many layers and is archival. I love the gray as a starting middle tone foundation so I can begin filling in darkest and lightest values right away to help the composition take shape.