Pets, Portraiture & Wildlife Art | Commissions & original art
  • Home
  • GALLERIES
    • Art in Acrylics
    • Art in Coloured pencils
    • Pet Art
    • Portraiture
    • Traditional Hearts
    • Wildlife Art
  • COMMISSIONS
    • COMMISSIONS >
      • Capturing great photos
    • Picture Framing
    • Q & A
  • Art News
  • SHOP
    • Original Art
    • Giclee Prints
    • Gift Vouchers
    • Gift Ideas
  • About
  • TUTORING
  • Contact

Legion Stonehenge
​paper review

Legion Stonehenge Paper Review


Updated 12th March 2018

Product Information - Stonehenge Paper

Taken from Jacksons Art Supplies website: 

"Stonehenge paper is a hardwearing 100% cotton paper for printmaking, painting, collage and other fine art applications.

Stonehenge was created in 1972 specifically as a 100% cotton deckled paper for the printmaking community, made to rival the more expensive European mouldmade papers. 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.

The paper of choice of many members of the Coloured Pencil Society of America, Stonehenge has the ability to take multiple layers of wax-based and oil-based coloured pencil without any buildup, allowing colours to penetrate and absorb into the surface of the sheet. Stonehenge paper is 100% cotton, hardwearing and versatile. It can be used for many art applications including printmaking, drawing, painting and collage.
Four decades and still going strong, Stonehenge continues to be made in the USA as a high quality affordable paper that never compromises fiber composition,  archival properties and its suitability for multiple mediums"



An Artist's choice

As a Graphite Artist, as well as a Coloured pencil Artist, I have found that in the UK, suitable paper for both Coloured pencil & Graphite pencil work is rather minimal and most of my searches have led me back to the same recommended papers, one being Stonehenge, the other Fabriano, so I thought I would trial the Stonehenge paper.
The following information has been provided having trialled the paper for Graphite pencils ONLY and is solely based on my own personal opinion.  Below is a quick guide to pros and cons of this paper.
​

ADVANTAGES
* Good range of colours including black
* Acid free
* Available from many Art suppliers (UK and beyond)
* Relatively Cheap
* Available in pads, sheets and 'on the roll'
DISADVANTAGES
* Very soft
* Only allows around 3 - 4 layers
* Paper bobbling when blending
* Indenting not as effective

Working With Graphite Pencils

With an off-white sheet of Stonehenge paper, I began a very basic practice piece, a circle - the first thing I noticed was how soft the paper was and how easy 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 shadow area to the left of the circle. My findings were not impressive, after the 3rd tone was applied and blended, I could see that the paper had begun to 'bobble' slightly, so that the final grade applied was now being blended in clumps and getting caught on these 'bobbles'.
Picture
Stonehenge 'bobbling'
Picture
Smooth paper
As I blend each base tone as I go along, I found that the smoothness of the paper just blended all the grades together too much and trying to build up darker points of the subject became much more of a challenge, almost as if the pencil begins to slide off underlayers applied.


Picture
Stonehenge - Indents
Picture
Smooth paper - Indents
As I tend to indent a lot of my work before applying graphite to the paper, I found that although the indents were easier placed due to the softness, applying base tones over the indents saw the pencil falling into these marks because of the soft paper - Indents are placed where you do not wish pencil to enter that part of the paper, so this paper proved useless for such effects.


Working with Coloured Pencils

Picture
Realism is achievable for Artists who do not apply lots of layers
Picture
Soft paper will accrue indents from the pencils
Picture
Paper texture close up

Karen's Conclusion....

For my Graphite pencil portraits, Stonehenge is not the paper for me due to the softness however as it is made from 100% Cotton, it is understandable that the texture is softer than other papers. I like to apply multiple layers, creating heavy, dark shadows to ensure it contrasts well against the lighter areas for maximum impact but I found this paper does not allow for this type of application.

step by step image screen print

Found this article interesting? Would you like to read more articles like this? 
Why not visit my official Step by Step Art website where there is much more to read including:

​*Product reviews
*Product Comparisons
*Written Step by Step Tutorials
*Video Tutorials (coming Soon)

Click the image to go straight to the website.

See Karen's Art Workshops available for this year

Other product reviews on this website:
Colourfix paper

Karen M Berisford pets, portraits and wildlife art website logo dark

SERVICES

Commissions
Acrylic Portraits
Coloured Pencil Portraits
Traditional Hearts
Gift Vouchers
​Buy Original Art
​Buy Giclee prints
​Art Tutoring


COMMISSIONS

Commissions Info.
Picture Framing
Reference photo advice
Frequently asked Questions
​
Videos from the studio - art in progress
Step by step art website logo red and yellow
For All Artists

HELP & INFORMATION

News Blog
About The Artist
​Get In Touch
​Product Information
Terms & Conditions & Privacy
Links
Site Map



Images and text within this website are Copyright of Karen M Berisford 2010 - 2021 
No content should be used, copied or distributed in any way without express consent from Karen M Berisford
  • Home
  • GALLERIES
    • Art in Acrylics
    • Art in Coloured pencils
    • Pet Art
    • Portraiture
    • Traditional Hearts
    • Wildlife Art
  • COMMISSIONS
    • COMMISSIONS >
      • Capturing great photos
    • Picture Framing
    • Q & A
  • Art News
  • SHOP
    • Original Art
    • Giclee Prints
    • Gift Vouchers
    • Gift Ideas
  • About
  • TUTORING
  • Contact