10 Best Paper For Colored Pencils in 2023 [Reviewed]

There are a few kinds of paper you can buy for art with colored pencils. However, there are certain factors where you must not compromise:

• Every artist wants the best possible archival properties, so there should be no yellowing with time.
• The paper should not tear easily.
• It should be able to absorb multiple layers of colors for compound finishes.
• The paper should be of a reasonably high quality

With these qualities in mind, we’ve chosen the ten best papers for colored pencils you can buy this year. Without further ado, let’s get to the product reviews!

Best Papers For Colored Pencils

Here is the list of the 10 best papers for colored pencils that you can use to create vibrant and captivating artworks.

1. Canson XL Series Mix Media Paper Pad - Best for Beginners and Hobbyists

When we talk about performance and value, very few products come close to the Canson XL Series Mix Media Paper Pad. Canson has been manufacturing papers for over five centuries. The XL Series Mix Media Paper Pad is one of the cheapest papers you can buy and has relatively decent quality too!

Experience

This Mix Media Paper Pad is terrific for beginners since it costs very less per sheet. It is available in many different sizes, ranging from 5” x 8.5” to 18” x 24”. These sheets have negligible flaws when it comes to creating art with colored pencils, but they are known to bleed with sketch pens.

The surface has a smooth and buttery texture. It is sturdy enough to bear multiple layers of pencil colors. In case you are looking for multiple pads to draw on - say one for home and one for the studio, you should probably buy two of these. The texture is quite similar to medium watercolor paper.

2. Legion Stonehenge Colored Pad - Best for Professional Artists

The second product in our recommendations comes from Legion, a company known for making cotton-based drawing paper pads for a long time. The Stonehenge series is renowned for being the best-colored pencil paper you can buy. It is 100% acid-free, comes with no chlorine or optical whiteners, and is made very responsibly.

Experience

The Stonehenge Pad comes with Legion’s printmaking expertise, thereby giving you an enjoyable experience overall. It is made out of cotton, which provides you with a superb drawing experience with almost every top-notch colored pencil on the market today.

The paper does not bleed ink, gives you supreme control over colors, and withstands several layers of colors on the surface without any problems. It allows you to be flexible and create almost anything that comes to your mind! We undoubtedly recommend this to professionals and experts. Beginners should not spend so much to practice.

While it is expensive, you wouldn’t expect the highest GSM paper to be value-for-money. It is definitely worth the outlay - especially if you’ve become a professional artist.

3. Fabriano Artistico Aquarelle for Colored Pencils - Best for Heavyweight Paper Lovers

Technically, this isn’t colored-pencil paper. However, once you use it, you will fall in love with the weight and the smoothness. While using this paper and colored pencils, you’ll soon forget that it wasn’t made to be used with colored pencils at all! It is recommended for pencils that are slightly harder so that the paper won’t break the pencil nib.

Experience

Besides the Legion paper, this paper is one of the few which comes with a high GSM rating of 300. Don’t be fooled by the rating - these two papers are worlds apart in all other contexts. The Fabiano is hot-pressed, while most other papers tend to be cold-pressed, so they give a bit more texture.

You can get this paper in a variety of sizes and in different quantities as well - you may want a roll if you’re a professional, but if you’re experimenting, you might want to go for single sheets. However, there is one problem - the cost. For a paper that isn’t even technically colored-pencil paper, it’s one of the most expensive options out there.

4. Moleskine Art Sketchbook for Colored Pencils - Best for Portability and Travel

Moleskine comes to the market with a wonderful product that shines because of its portability. Moleskine’s claim to fame is their notebooks, which are some of the best you can find in the market. Their sketchbook is brilliant, irrespective of which set of colored pencils you use with them.

Experience

Moleskine’s Art Sketchbook comes in four sizes, ranging from pocket-sized (5” x 5.5”) to full-fledged A3. Paper quality is one of the most important aspects of this notebook - it outshines most of its competitors when it comes to this attribute. Moleskine is known for high-quality paper, and this product certainly does its best to uphold the company’s reputation. 

This sketchbook comes with a pocket up front, which is useful for storing tidbits.

We especially liked the shade of the paper, which is a toned ivory color. Another great feature of the pages is that they are acid-free and have rounded corners, which helps when you’re keeping the notebook in your pocket. For drawing something up quickly or sketching while traveling, there are very few products that come close in quality.

5. Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Vellum Pad - Best for Unique Texture Enthusiasts

With this, we come to the real deal - the actual sketching pads which are directly aimed towards colored pencils and shading pencils. This paper is slightly more textured than the best color pencil sketch pads on the market but does the job just as well in most circumstances. Vellum used to be made from animals but is now made from plant material.

Experience

This sketchpad is a little different from regular colored pencil sketching pads, in that you get multiple ply sheets on one page and hence, a heavier sheet with a 270 GSM weight to it. This pad is ideally suited for a studio because it is too large to be used on the go. We especially liked the paper quality, which is beyond reproach.

The shade of the page is slightly light grey/yellow, because of the way vellum is prepared. The 400 series and the 300 series differ in that the 400 series is somewhat more expensive and slightly better when it comes to performance with a variety of color pencils, such as the Prismacolor and the Faber-Castell ranges.

6. Strathmore 400 Series for Colored Pencils

The OG Strathmore Colored Pencil Pad has 100 sheets with some of the best quality paper you can buy today. We especially liked the price of this pad - merely above the average price you would expect from normal sketchpads. It offers brilliant value for money and is one of the better choices you can make if you want the regular sketch finish.

Experience

This set of pages is very polarising among the artist community, mostly because it’s one of the few sketch pads which allow the tooth to show through the work. Hence, artists with softer leads such as Prismacolor have an affinity for the 400 series. However, it remains a solid choice, even in light of intense competition and its unique tooth property.

Strathmore has taken into account the needs of users who like to move around with their colored pencils. They have introduced a portable variant that measures approximately 6” x 8”. It will easily fit into a small bag or a purse - you can draw with ease pretty much anywhere you wish to. The paper is acid-free and comes in at around 270 GSM.

7. Bee Paper Bee Creative Colored Pencils Book

It is another one of the few rare sketchbooks which were explicitly designed for colored pencils. It comes with 50 pages and is geared mostly towards those starting with colored pencil-based art. Many competitors are primarily concerned with covering all kinds of art possible, which makes this product a bit different.

Experience

It is a beginner-level colored pencil pad - it has neither the GSM heft nor the tooth expected from more premium surfaces such as those recommended above. However, it brings a few remarkable features to the forefront - including 100% acid-free paper. It is a spiral-bound notebook rather than individual sheets, which gives you great archival benefits.

The pad is available in three sizes - 5” x 8”, 5” x 11”, and 8” x 8”. Thus, it makes a lot of sense for students who are just starting out with colored pencils or want more practice to get this pad. 50 sheets for as little as this pad offers is a bargain you do not want to miss out on! It’s also great for the outdoorsy types and has gotten rave reviews from a lot of people as well.

8. Canson Universal Sketch Paper Pad

If you’re looking for a smoother paper and want to introduce more detail into your work, the Canson Universal might be what you’re looking for. However, be warned - adding more detail to your work comes at the cost of allowing more colors into your work. Hence, it only makes sense to go for this pad if you’re sure you don’t want to mix colors too much.

Experience

This sketch pad comes with everything you need if you want to try less color but more detail. The surface is incredibly smooth for the price, which means that standard artwork will be a breeze to put on these sheets. They also come at somewhere around the average price mark, so they’re neither too cheap nor too expensive to buy.

The pages are finished in a natural white, so you won’t have any problems when it comes to color reproduction. These pages are acid-free, which means they have excellent archival properties as well - though not the best. The pages are also perforated, and it comes in a spiral binding which should give you an exceptional finish. Hence, you’ll be quite happy if you want to create art on these papers.

9. Strathmore Medium Weight Drawing Paper Pad

With Strathmore’s third entry into our list of reviews, you should get an idea of how well they have mastered the art of making papers for all kinds of purposes, especially colored-pencil papers. It is a much larger pad with an 8” x 10” size, which means it is another excellent product to have around in the studio.

Experience

The papers are a fair bit heavier than you’d expect your generic sketch pad to be, but that’s a pretty good sign - in both archival properties and color absorption. It comes in at one of the best medium-weight papers that we’ve reviewed, both in terms of archival qualities as well as range.

It only comes in a specific size - which is 8” x 10”. If you’re looking for pads that come with a bit more in terms of size, you should have a look at the other offerings that we reviewed earlier.

10. Strathmore Sketch Series Drawing Pad

Jack of all trades but master of none - this idiom sums the drawing pad up pretty well, in our opinion. The drawing pad gives you more range than you need when it comes to colors but also gives you enough tooth to get some excellent detail going. The sketch series is aimed at all artists and not just colored-pencil users, but it behaves quite nicely with it too!

Experience

As the last item on our review list, it leaves little to be desired. It is a beautiful combination of natural-looking colors, with enough heft to allow good quality designs with as much color as you wish. At the same time, it has enough smoothness for you to detail your designs as much as possible. The GSM rating is 74, the least of all here - but it does give you a great experience!

The low GSM points to it being strictly practice paper, but this is not the case. It is useful even if you want to showcase the odd drawing or two. This set of pages, in fact, turns out to be one of the best-rounded products that we have reviewed today.

Conclusion

Selecting the best paper for your colored pencils is vital to ensuring a pleasurable and quality experience in creating stunning artwork. Different paper products cater to varying needs, involving factors such as skill level, budget, paper texture, and weight.

From the above 10 best papers for colored pencils, here are the top three expert recommendations:

The Canson XL Series Mix Media Paper Pad is an ideal option for beginners and hobbyists, offering excellent value for money and a smooth finish.

The Legion Stonehenge Colored Pad is a good option for professional artists, with a high GSM and top-quality texture.

Lastly, the Fabriano Artistico Aquarelle is the right choice for heavyweight paper lovers due to its high GSM and hot-pressed variety.

Consider these top suggestions when selecting the best paper suited to your needs, requirements, and level of expertise. Enjoy the creative journey, and always remember that practice and quality materials will help elevate your work to greater heights.

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