Continuing with colored pencil:
I did "Watering the Flowers" on watercolor paper - mostly because I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out and I was saving my Stonehenge paper for "when I'm good" with CPs. From what I've read, CP artists use a large variety of papers and other surfaces for their art, watercolor paper included. However, a comment by a WetCanvas member encouraging me to use Stongehenge now - while I'm learning - made me curious about how much the paper affects the outcome. So I did a quick little experiment. In the two swatches above I used the same two colors with about the same pressure. Both were burnished with a colorless blender pencil. I was surprised at how much richer and smoother the coverage was on the Stonehenge compared to the watercolor - and how much easier it was to apply. Even though Stonehenge does have a little texture, it doesn't have the tiny "hills and valleys" of the watercolor (cold press). On Stonehenge the pencil glided smoothly over the surface, whereas with the watercolor paper it tended to skip over the valleys leaving tiny specks of paper showing through and making it difficult to achieve smooth even coverage. Good stuff to know- the watercolor paper might still be a good CP choice when you want an uneven texture, but for a smooth finish it's Stonehenge.
