Paper

Composition

Most of us understand that the paper we use on a daily basis - be it stationary or other miscellaneous paper products - are made from wood pulp. This includes daily products like computer paper, and paper towels. A lot of drawing papers are indeed derived from wood pulp and they are great for drawing and inking techniques.

It is important when looking for drawing papers, that it be acid free. These papers have been made to last longer and are better suited for both art making and in displaying art work. It seems a little odd that paper would be acidic to begin with, however, acid is naturally occurring in wood and plant-based products. As the paper ages, it produces this acid which causes the paper to break down over time. This leads to both the yellowing of paper, as well as brittleness; neither of which are ideal for your artwork. So, paper that is made to be acid-free has been treated to help negate the natural degradation of wood-pulp-based products, allowing them to last longer without yellowing or breaking apart.

Alternatively, there are other art papers that will be made of cotton or even a blend of cotton and wood pulp. Cotton papers are much stronger so they tend to hold up better over time. Additionally, cotton, or rag as it is also called, is naturally acid free, so if you have 100% cotton paper, you don’t have to worry about it breaking down or yellowing the way stationary, or other wood pulp papers tend to. Cotton lends itself really well to wet mediums, especially for watercolor or inks.

Manufacturers may not always specify what type of paper they are selling and when this is the case, it’s safe to assume that it is made of wood pulp. If it is made of cotton, or a percentage of cotton, the manufacturer will state this as being made of 100% or 50% of cotton, for example, the other material being wood pulp, of course.

Weight

The paper that most people are familiar with is computer paper and it is usually the first thing beginner artists will draw on. This is not necessarily the worst paper to use, the main issue just being that it is thin and can get easily damaged by both writing utensils and erasers alike. This can get frustrating pretty quickly, especially when it happens halfway through a drawing. This is because it is a light weight paper. Now, when we talk about how heavy, or thick a paper is, we have two units of measurement that are most often used. The first being pounds, which is a measurement used in the United States, and GSM, or Grams per Square Meter. GSM is a unit of measurement in the Metric System which is not only more widely used, it is also a much more reliable measuring system.

Let’s use computer paper as our example while I explain. The way we calculate a paper’s poundage is convoluted to say the least. The computer paper that we so often use weighs in at 20 lbs. Weight in pounds is derived from the combined weight of a single ream of paper. What is a “ream” of paper? Well, in recent history, it means “a stack of 500 sheets of paper” - the number has actually changed since the middle ages when a “ream” measured 480 pages. 


So what? 500 pages, that is easy enough… or is it? You’ll be disappointed to learn that there is no regulation or standardization dictating what the size, meaning length and width, of that paper is when it’s weighed. They calculate the weight before the paper has even been cut down to size. So, depending on the manufacture, the type of paper you are using, the material the paper is made out of, or just the natural differences that are produced during the manufacturing process - all factor into what the actual weight of any particular paper is.

If this all sounds pretty confusing, that’s because it is.

Well, of course the rest of the world figured out an alternative option, and thanks to that we now have GSM to help us out. Grams Per Square Meter actually gives us the exact dimension the paper is when its weight is calculated, and so if you divide the weight of the paper by the square meters of said paper, the result is qualitative, and exact. So what is the weight of computer paper? 75 g/m2. 

With this information, the weight of any typical drawing paper can vary depending on the brand and the manufacturer - plus you always want to keep in mind your own personal preferences - but typical drawing papers weigh more than 65 lbs, or 96 GSM.

Tooth

The last quality that is well worth considering is what is known as the “tooth of the paper”. Or, in simpler terms, how smooth a piece of paper is. Paper that has very little tooth to it will feel smooth to the touch. The smooth texture makes it ideal for materials like pencils, pens, fine liners, and other such media since their fine points can easily glide over the page. The advantage being that it provides a high degree of control over your medium on such a surface.

The alternative is a paper that has a lot of tooth, or texture, to it. While it can be a better surface for materials that require a lot of layers, like pastel or colored pencils, since the tooth provides more surface area to hold all of that pigment, this texture can actually make it hard to control other materials like pencil, pens, or ink as they can skip and jump around making the trajectory of your lines unpredictable.

There is a massive spectrum of papers, and paper textures available to you. Depending on the manufacturer, the process under which it was made, what materials they are derived from, how much of what materials were used, what type of medium they are intended for, whether or not they were rolled, stamped, or pressed… Ultimately, it is important to have an understanding of what your personal preferences are, what materials you intend to use, and what qualities you are looking for in a paper.