Often touted as the best budget pastel paper, Canson Mi-teintes Pastel Paper retails for merely CAD$11.85. Are these really good or just good for the price? Read on to find out.
Testing Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper with Soft Pastels
I used the more textured side for the eagle drawing because I was going to use a combination of harder chalk pastel pencils and soft pastels, and I needed the texture to grip the powders. It did a decent job. However, I wasn’t blown away, though it fared better than the Strathmore pastel paper I had used before.
The prices for these two papers are almost the same, but I prefer the Canson Mi-Teintes because they are thicker and dual surfaced.
For this eagle, I used three sets of pastels to complete. I used the Stabilo pastels to do the outlines and details, and alternates between the Faber-Castell and Mungyo to do the larger areas. I feel that the paper didn’t quite grip the soft pastels as well as I hoped, but at this price point, I wasn’t expecting Pastelmat quality. 😉
I finished the eagle painting on the Canson Mi-Teintes Paper. It was not effortless, but I think if I had used oil pastel the pigment would have gone on better.
Comparison with a Gesso’ed Surface
I quickly gesso’ed a Strathmore Mixed Media paper to see whether the chalk pastels go on better on a more sanded surface. The pigments laid down much easier on the sanded gesso’ed paper. I think it’s just the nature of these soft chalk pastels that needed a grittier surface to hold onto.
Testing Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper with Water and Wax Pastels
I decided to use a different kind of pastels–something a little harder–and see if the paper fares better.
(Reference Photo Link)
I used Stabilo CarbOtello pastel pencil to sketch the outline, before painting it with Caran D’ache Neocolor II wax pastels. These pastels are hard, not creamy, and you cannot use your fingers to blend, but they do lay down easier on the paper.
By the way, with these pastels, the smoother side of the paper might have been better. I then blended the butterfly with a bit of water, and it seemed to react well with the paper, with minimal buckling.
Surprisingly, the paper took the water quite well, even better than some of the cheap watercolour papers I had.
After that, I used Faber-Castell Creative Studio soft pastels to refine the details a bit, adding a final layer to the painting. I wish I had used the smoother side of the paper, but the results are not bad. This was a 30-minute quick painting just to test out the wax pastels on the paper, and the paper fared very well.
By the way, the Faber-Castell Creative Studio soft pastels are almost identical to the Mungyo Soft Pastels. I am convinced they are the same, especially since the Faber-Castell ones are also made in Korea like Mungyo. 😉
Testing Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper with Oil Pastels
Using the more textured side, I did a quick painting of a fox with Faber Castell Creative Studio Oil Pastels, which are student grade, medium firm oil pastels. They are not my favourite pastels but I just wanted to see how they go on the paper. The paper took in the sticky and gummy pastels very well and I had no problem blending them on it.
Using the Smoother Side with Coloured Pencils
Lachri Fine Art has recommended using the smoother side of the Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper with coloured pencils. It is toothy, so I want to give my set of Kalour Macaron coloured pencils another shot. The pigments did lay down a lot better than on Bristol vellum and Bristol smooth papers. However, since it is much toothier, it takes even more layers to fill the tooth of the paper.
I ended up using solvent, before my hand hurts from doing 6+ layers. I blended the Kalour Macaron pencils with Gamsol to fill the tooth of the paper. Canson Mi-Teintes handled the solvent just as well as it took in water.
Summary
In conclusion, Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Papers are pretty good for pastels, but best for harder or creamier ones like oil and wax pastels. I still prefer to use gesso on my paper, sanding it down for soft pastels.
In addition, these papers are surprisingly good for coloured pencils. If you have oil-based or budget coloured pencils, they will work well together, and great with solvents too.
