Toned Paper (Patreon)

Last post for this sketchbook deep dive. Toned Paper. I love using toned paper. I find that it makes me think about drawing in a different way. Toned papers can also be a good way to get over that blank white piece of paper staring into your soul thing. 

The main reason why I first started using toned paper years ago was because it can make your drawings look more interesting than they might actually be. And that's not a bad thing. If you can get more confidence in yourself, you'll draw more. 

To show what I mean, I photoshopped a drawing done on a piece of regular sketch paper onto a piece of toned paper. It was just a warm up sketch from a life drawing workshop. But the paper makes the drawing look more interesting (at least I think so.)

Using toned to make my bad drawings feel less bad isn't just something I used to do. For my painting "the Cave" I needed to generate a lot of bad ideas quickly to figure out the composition. 

How to use toned paper

Since the paper is already a middle value, you can focus on the shadows and hightlights and then shade towards the value of the paper. 

With regular white paper you are creating the whole value range, except for white. With toned paper you are building the shadow and highlight range around the paper tone.

Adding the highlights can be satisfying. They pop against the toned paper. 

Types of Toned Paper

You can buy toned paper in a variety of different colors. Strathmore's main colors are tan, blue and gray. They also make a black paper, which they market as its own thing. But it still falls under this category in my eyes.

This is a drawing on the toned blue paper. The main difference between the toned tan and the toned blue is the tan is warm and the blue is cool. 

With the tan paper I like to use a pure white for a cool highlight against the warm paper. 

With the blue I like to use a more yellow or cream white to make a warm highlight against the cool paper.

 Disclaimer: I've never used the gray toned paper.

The black paper is cool because it really makes colors pop. I like using it with pastels.

You can also get some cool effects with the black paper by using just a sliver of intense, opaque highlights and then create a soft gradation into the blackness.

Speaking of pastels, Pastel paper also comes in a variety of different colors. I haven't used pastel paper in a while and I couldn't find any of my work I did on it. Pastel paper is a more heavily textured toned paper.

You can also get toned mixed media paper which is thicker and more absorbent. It works really nice with gouache. 

Gouache, ink, and watercolor on toned tan mixed media paper.

Strathmore's website says: "Our Toned papers are 100% recycled, contain 30% post-consumer fiber, and also contain kraft and bark fiber inclusions which adds visual interest." 

Those "Kraft and bark fiber inclusions" are those fuzzy looking things and specs that you can see in these drawings. They don't add any texture to the paper. All this paper is very smooth. 

You can also make your own toned paper. 

Use a piece of mixed media paper or watercolor paper, then tone it with whatever color you want the paper to be. 

If you use watercolor to tone the paper you can use a rubber eraser to pull up some of the watercolor to create highlights by revealing the white paper underneath the toned surface.

But if you don't want the tone you use to pull up, you can use some acrylic paint diluted with water. If you use too much acrylic paint in the mixture, the surface will become slick and difficult to draw on. 

For this sketchbook page I toned a sheet of mixed media paper with a light yellow ochre watercolor wash. 

Happy Feb. 12th everybody

Last night I went and took reference photos for a painting. They look really freaking good.

I have an idea for a three piece series called losing face. You'll see.

The idea came out of two painting studies I did last year. Some of you will remember "the covid collection."  This idea came out of some of those paintings.

I did a lot of painting studies like that last year. Small, quick paintings purely from imagination. 

I was getting  ready to upload them all to my store and start hawking them. But I thought better of it. Most of them are good ideas. But are better as starting out points than as finished products.  

Rather than constantly banging my head against the wall trying to come up with more and more new ideas, I'm just going to take my time developing the ideas I already have.

Flesh them out a little bit more. Give them "the Cave" treatment. Make references and maquettes and turn decent paintings into good paintings.

Speaking of the Cave, I've been sorting through all the video footage from that process. It's over 50 hours. 

So I think I'm going to break it up into parts. Like prepping the canvas, doing sketches, making the maquette, and then 2 or three different stages of the painting. 

Anyways. Sorry if this is too in the weeds. That's just what's been on my mind recently. 

Have Fun

Goodnight Sweeties