As a Botanical and Natural Science artist, I am always looking for faster ways produce my art. Refining techniques and building skills help when billing a client as well as on the eyesight! I have been playing around with a paper called Stipple Paper by Aquabee. It is a highly textured, “pebbled” paper that resembles pointillism or stippling in traditional Pen & Ink techniques. Here I used a Prismacolor black pencil and a Micron Pen. The paper does not allow for much erasing so you have to be careful…. especially with the Micron Pen. Pen & Ink techniques can often be very time consuming, especially stipple. To get tonal values the dots have to spaces very carefully to get a gradation of values. If I had done this drawing in traditional pen & ink stipple it probably would have taken me 10 hours or more. This drawing was done in about 2!
If you are interested in trying this paper here is a direct link on where you can get yourself a pad of this cool stuff!
How does this paper differ from coquille fine stipple paper? Is the texture more of a medium grade? Both papers are sold by the same company, but I am looking on-line rather than in-person so cannot feel the texture. Do you prefer one over the other? Thanks!
Hi Deborah,
The texture is definitely a medium grade. I used to use coquille board back in the days when one could find it! It was available in 2 different grades, fine and medium but from what I can tell it is no longer available. The re-invented coquille board is now called Stipple Paper and it is made by Aqua-bee. I like it very much and find the texture perfect for the results I am getting. If it were any finer I think it would not have a textural appearance. If it were any coarser I don’t believe you could get enough fine detail….. so all in all I think the company has done a fine job at “standardizing” the paper and making it work for a wide variety of projects. Let me know if you buy some and what you think of it. Happy drawing! ~Mindy
Mindy, why is it possible to complete a drawing more quickly on this paper?
Hi Sharon- This paper has tiny little bumps on it. If you are looking to assimilate the look of stipple in Pen and Ink and don’t want to make all the tiny dots with the pen this is the paper to use. When I stipple with a pen, I have to go slowly and methodically to make sure the dots do not touch each other. When they touch, they create dashes instead of evenly spaced dots. I have to create a gradation of tone, building up slowly with dots to get the form to turn. With the stipple paper I use a black colored pencil and am able to use it as I do when I work in graphite. I use the side of the colored pencil and the raised dots get the tone. The more layers I add, the darker and more filled in the area becomes. In order for me to get the same results in pen & ink it probably would have taken me 10 or more hours. By layering like a pencil I can create larger areas at one time. I hope this answers your question!
Thanks for the complete explanation!