What are your preferred grounds for working in graphite? Colored pencil? Watercolor? Gouache? Pen-and-ink?
Sandra Wall Armitage
Watercolour: I use either Fabriano Artistico 140 lbs which I stretch or the heaviest weight Fabriano Satinata
Kathleen Baker
I prefer to work with watercolour because I am able to produce the minute details, seen with a hand lens, in my paintings. The other media don’t allow me to do this.
Susan Christopher-Coulson
My preferred work surface for coloured pencil is a Bristol board with as white a surface as I can get. I like the smooth surface and clarity.
Susan Dalton
My preferred ground for working in is: Watercolour blocks of 140lbs Fabriano Artistico 300gsm hot pressed paper. I do not work in any other mediums.
Brigitte Daniel
I don’t understand this question. If [you] mean what support I use, then I work on watercolour paper and vellum using a technique similar to chiaroscuro. I build up the painting in layers, i.e. I use the paper as the light and work from light to dark.
Susan Hillier
For coloured pencil and w.c., Fabriano h.p., rag paper
Jennifer Jenkins
I always use the materials mentioned in question one, which are of high quality for watercolour, gouache, graphite etc.
Kay Rees Davies
For graphite, watercolour, pen and ink and coloured pencils I use hot-pressed paper, 300gsm (140 lbs). For gouache I have used dark-coloured mount board which works well. Have a look at Sally Keir’s exquisite work in The Art of Botanical Painting (Margaret Stevens).
Margaret Stevens
For graphite and watercolour I use Hot pressed 350gsm paper, preferably Fabriano Classico 5 which is hard to come by, Sennelier in the same weight and surface, or Arches. The latter is because I started an ongoing commission for old roses in the style of Redouté some 15 years ago and I cannot change papers now as they are all hung together, over 50 of them. I occasionally work on vellum in watercolour. I like mount board for gouache or Bockingford tinted paper when it is for reproduction.
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