The 5 Best smooth Pastel papers (2023 reviews)

The strathmore smooth pastel paper is long-lasting, rigid and fits well with your daily purpose like a dream. This is a good pad of art paper, nothing more, nothing less. It uses this pad all the time to draw. The lightly coloured ground makes it possible to use less pastel to achieve a uniform background colour, allowing more direct colour layering in the painting. It is good for all types of media.

If you are new to pastel painting, know that this paper is suitable as well for chalk and soft pastels. There are different colored pages through out the pad. This works wonderfully on watercolor paper, too. It is great for learning pastel medium, dry and oil. This is a great size that will urge you to consider doing larger pieces that can be "Gifts" or on display at a Show.

Why We Like This:

Good for drawing and keeping memories
Great for a beginner looking to experiment
Lot of satisfied buyers

Best for both soft pastells: Canson smooth Pastel Paper

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The canson smooth pastel paper's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. If you use charcoal or pastel, this textured tone variation of paper is spectacular. This selection contains four sheets each of the following colors. It has a nice tooth and holds several layers of color very well, and allows you to blend colors too. The front is more textured, good for soft pastels. The colors are especially bright.

This is a heavy paper and is better for pastel, pencil and charcoal. It is several sheets with about three or four of each of several colors. The colors are a nice variety to practice on and see what you like.

Why We Like This:

Excellent drawing pad for oil pastel
Good value for beginners and for creating studies
Ideal for pastel & other dry media

Best for charcoal: Canson High quality Paper

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Canson line of paper come in a pretty wide variety of styles, so you can definitely find one that suits your individual preferences and needs. This is a good quality pastel paper used by many pastel artists. It works well with several mediums, and the lovely colours available makes this an attractive alternative to the more premium priced paper. It is a light-fast paper that is colored at the pulp level. It has a moderate tooth, nice texture. The blending is marvelous on this paper. It is good for soft or oil pastel. The surface can take many layers of soft pastel and pastel pencil. It is easy to find art supplies.

Why We Like This:

Great for colored paper and oil pastels
Wonderful selection of colors from canson's wide array of hues
New and hot release

Best for dry Pastel: Clairefontaine smooth Pastel Paper

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Compared with other paper in this category, the clairefontaine smooth pastel paper has a convenient design. This glued block of 360 g card is ideal for the pastel technique. It is used for pastel art painting. It is coarser than velour, but softer than sandpaper. It allows you to receive energetic strokes such as the softest shadings. It is acid-free and has a neutral ph for perfect preservation of the drawings over time.

The soft and adherent surface of pastelmat paper makes it possible to multiply the layers of pigments without saturation effects and without fixative. It is very good for layering your colors and fur. The four colors in this pad are perfect.

Why We Like This:

Great paper for layering color and deep color
Holds lots of layers and is smooth to the touch
Not quite a "board", but thicker and holds up better than heavy duty papers

Best for creating distinctive artwork with soft pastels: COLOUR BLOCK smooth Pastel Paper

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The 12 x 16 inch paperback pad contains 24 sheets of 230 gsm acid free paper. It allows creative artists to maximize the bright colors and boost artistic creativity. The fine texture on the pages affords easy, smooth blending, mixing, and layering. It’ll buckle a little first, then return to being flat once gesso dries.

The cold pressed paper has a slightly bumpy and textured surface with pronounced tooth. It doesn’t have a lot of teeth and isn’t very thick. It is designed in glue bound paperback, so paper can be removed easily. Being acid free, the paper is eco-friendly and is used commonly in the long term archival storage of art without being yellow or breaking down.

Why We Like This:

Good investment for long term
Lot of satisfied buyers