Wet Canvascomis Art Spectrum Colourfix Smooth Paper the Same as Suede

Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede is a new pastel surface that came out in 2010 or 2011. I bought a pack of ten pieces with all 8 colors plus an actress sheet of black and an extra sheet of white. It'southward similar to ClaireFontaine PastelMat in that it's a coated surface only not sanded or gritty. It has a soft virtually velvety fine-grained matte surface.

So fine grained that if I wanted to practise pen details or mix media on it, I could practise that. The advantage of both products is that they'll make very fine detail possible while holding many more than layers of pastel than non-sanded pastel paper. The coating is practical to a heavy card and stands up well to moisture underpaintings and wash treatments. I cut out a half-dozen inch square to do my section of a "Puzzle Painting" where the photo reference was divided on a grid and 36 different artists each practice a piece of the whole painting, then marked it up for a v" square piece.

I think the photo reference is of a candy dish with some jelly beans in information technology, my slice definitely looked like jelly beans but another pieces looked like they had bits of chocolate. I liked how much detail I had and so I could get down, layer, underpaint and see how well the surface stands upward to water.

I sketched the outlines using Carb-Othello pastel pencils, filled them with apartment color and then done over them using a waterbrush. I'm not sure what would've happened if I'd used a lot of water, soaked it like I was going to do large watery washes with watercolor, but at least for washing a dry underpainting to plough it into a wet one, the Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede performed beautifully!

Pencil lines come up through strong and clean on Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede. If y'all want to combine pencil and pastel or pen and watercolor and pastel, this stuff would be wonderful for various multi-media styles. Try different mediums on the surface along with soft or oil pastels. I don't remember yous'd get much layering with oil pastels but using hard or soft pastels it gives plenty of layering and removes easily with a kneaded eraser.

You lot can encounter that my brush strokes with the round water brush - equivalent of a size 7 Winsor & Newton round castor - are quite visible. Watercolor moves around on this surface. I don't think I'd have any problem if I wanted to do moisture into wet watercolor washes on it. The blanket is absorbent and retains its texture after washing. This isn't true of all coated and sanded pastel surfaces.

Sennelier La Carte du jour pastel carte is made with a watersoluble glue holding the vegetable flakes to the card, then you don't dare sneeze at it. Little holes volition appear where the coating washes off. So it's best with any coated or sanded pastel surface to test water on a modest slice of information technology to observe out what dissolves the coating. I haven't tested information technology with turpentine or odorless mineral spirits yet so I'll add together to this review if I do - sometimes water won't dissolve a coating but other solvents do. Whatever solvents you use, e'er examination them on a minor scrap outside the picture area to find out if it'll destroy the blanket on any coated or sanded pastel paper.

I establish that it could concur quite a few layers. The finished pastel puzzle piece is up at the tiptop of this article. I used Colour Conte difficult pastels and gave it four or five layers to mix colors earlier I had to add together anything else. This is most twice as much layering every bit I'd get using non-sanded paper similar Canson mi-Tientes. Information technology was nevertheless grabby and total of tooth when I switched to Mungyo Gallery Artist Soft Squares for the concluding 2 or three layers - again for colour mixing, some areas got two or three more than coats in more than 1 color to alloy them.

Information technology holds difficult edges beautifully, almost also well. I had to deliberately soften some edges on this little square painting because working just upward to the lines and changig colors gave harsh clean edges. Perfect if what you want is hard-edged details, for soft edges it's ameliorate to blend across them with a stick than endeavor to blend with fingers or tools.

I tried blending the edges softer with Q-tips but discovered this pulled off color and went dorsum to the underpainting rather than blurring information technology. Some other blenders similar Color Shapers might work improve and it helps to have a lot of pastel on earlier trying to blend. Like PastelMat, Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede keeps your strokes exactly where yous put them. This makes blending with sticks work beautifully. I cull a stick that'due south mid-way between the side by side colors in value and a hue that works well with both of them - in some areas I used gray, in others I used a dark sanguine, it varied.

Because you tin can add so many layers, even a pocket-size fix of pastels like my 24 Color Conte sticks will requite a gorgeous range of combinations. Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede is perfect for detailed realism and hard or medium pastels. It'southward grabby but fine-grained, so filling the tooth with super soft pastels like Senneliers would probably limit how much more y'all can put on information technology unless they're rubbed in thoroughly.

Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede as well erases completely clean with a kneaded eraser. I got a dark smudge in the middle of a vivid spot when I was doing the original layers, a bit of the dark bluish got misplaced. A kneaded eraser cleaned it right back to white without dissentious the surface at all. I was gentle with it but very happy with how it erases.

Because it'due south in a category with Clairefontaine PastelMat, Art Spectrum Colourfix Suede is a wonderful surface for Pan Pastels painting. I haven't tried Pans on it yet but judging by how pastel pencils and hard pastels work on information technology, I look the same wonderful results. It'due south like painting on the sticky side of glue. Erase if you want to make major changes, yous tin can become information technology proficient and make clean. If you desire a thick, textured, painterly look with super-soft pastels, go back to the original Art Spectrum Colourfix or endeavour Art Spectrum Colourfix Supertooth, which equally about as harsh and toothy equally Kitty Wallis newspaper.

Savour! Fine art Spectrum Colourfix Suede comes in 8 practiced colors including white, black, cool and dark colors and a brilliant blue-violet that would be fun for nocturnes. You can tell sheets apart from Fine art Spectrum Colourfix at a glance considering unlike regular Colourfix, the coating goes right out to the edges of the canvas without a blank half inch effectually it to put nether the mat.

PS - sorry about the two month hiatus. I had some serious wellness issues over December and January. I'd been overextending myself physically, routinely walking too far, going up and down too many stairs since the lift broke and just doing too much. Eventually I hit the Big Crash and literally slept through Christmas, and then had a ii month excess of things to catch up on.

I'll be working on getting back to regular weekly posts now, enjoy!

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Source: http://robs-art-supply-reviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/art-spectrum-colourfix-suede-reviewed.html

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