Canson Mi Teintes - which colour paper to use?

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong". Joseph Chilton Pearce

Canson Mi Teintes paper is available in many different shades. I love this paper for its textured surface and use it a lot for my charcoal as well as soft pastel works. How do I go about choosing the colour of the paper? .

Being self taught, during my initial stages of pastel studies I went about following what other artists did ( With respect to selecting the colour of the paper ). However with experience I realised that what works for someone else may not always work for me as each one of us follows a different technique and style.

For my landscape works I tried the lighter pastel shades of the paper but was somehow not happy with the results. I had a difficult time getting the dark colours in the forest. Therefore over a period of time I settled for dark brown and black paper. For seascapes I experimented with orange and red colour Canson paper and the effect was pretty satisfactory.

I plan to do a lot many forest scenes in future in soft pastel medium, hence have decided to do a couple of thumbnail sketches to start with. A detailed study after careful observation of colours, values, perspective etc helps in getting the thumbnail sketch right which in turn acts as a reference when the real painting begins.

Given below are the thumbnail sketches of a beautiful scene from Coorg,  created on two different coloured papers. The painting at the top is done on black paper and the lower one is created on Canson twilight paper

A scene from Coorg

created on black paper 

and twilight paper.

Size 3.5" X 4.5"

Canson Mi Teintes twilight colour

The colour of the paper used for the soft pastel painting affects the final outcome. I will analyse, evaluate and some time later take a decision regarding which coloured paper to use for my bigger work. 

When I create a thumbnail sketch or the study sketch it is more about my interpretation of the scene and I try not to create a photocopy of the scene. Making creative changes with respect to the position of a few elements so as to get a better composition is the first step that I take even before beginning with the small sketch.

I shall be creating an enlarged version of these paintings soon but in the meantime will continue creating more of thumbnail sketches as a preliminary preparation for my future works.

For all those who are in Mumbai and wish to attend the India Art Festival 2016, can go to Nehru Science Centre, Worli on 7th, 8th and 9th of October when it is open to visitors from 11 am to 6 pm.