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"
"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.
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.
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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'.
Stonehenge 'bobbling'
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Smooth paper
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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.
Stonehenge - Indents
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Smooth paper - Indents
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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
Realism is achievable for Artists who do not apply lots of layers
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Soft paper will accrue indents from the pencils
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Paper texture close up
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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.
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