Pastelmat: Best Pastel Paper?

Clairefontaine’s Pastelmat is often touted as the best pastel paper. So far, it is the most expensive paper I have used, even above my beloved Arches watercolour paper. Is it worth the hype? I tested it with both soft pastels and oil pastels, and here is my review.

Using Soft Pastels on Pastelmat

This is a commissioned piece of a Coton de Tulear. Coton de Tulears are relatively easy to draw; most of it is just white fur. This is probably the quickest and easiest commissioned portraits I have ever done!

Pastelmat: Best Paper for Soft Pastels!

The surface of the Pastelmat caught me by surprise. It is so smooth I had my doubts how much pigment it could hold. I used my finger to blend and the surface did not feel scratchy or gritty at all.

Meanwhile, I used Stabilo pastel pencils as underpainting in some areas before using Mungyo Soft Pastels. I was surprised how many layers of the soft chalk pastels the Pastelmat could hold.

By the way, between each cardboard sheet of Pastelmat there is a glassine sheet that prevents any smearing. The Pastelmat also holds the pigment with little to no dust, so you don’t waste your pastels.

Layering with Soft Pastels is a Breeze on Pastelmat

I ended up using Faber Castell’s cheapest soft pastels along with Mungyo and Stabilo on the Pastelmat. By now, I am convinced, like I always was, that the right paper is the most important to do art. These are inexpensive chalk pastels and they performed so well on Pastelmat!

In addition, Pastelmat has great erasability as it claims. From my rough sketch, I noticed the distance between the nose and mouth was too big, and I was able to erase even the black pigment from the Pastelmat with no staining.

I have to say, Pastelmat truly is the best paper for soft pastels. I have not used anything quite like it to produce great results with very little effort. WOW.

Is Pastelmat the Best Paper for Oil Pastels?

Since the official description said Pastelmat works well with any dry medium including oil pastels, I did a quick landscape painting with Paul Rubens oil pastels on it. I have heard Lindsay Weirich say in one of her tutorials that oil pastels work best with a sanded paper, so I kept that in mind when I tested my oil pastels on Pastelmat.

Right away, I noticed that after blending the oil pastels on Pastelmat it left virtually nothing on my finger. Pastelmat absorbed all of it! However, layering isn’t as easy with oil pastels on Pastelmat. I put a light layer on but had a hard time after the second layer to put more on. I think oil pastels require a grittier surface, which is probably why Lindsay Weirich said they work best on sanded paper.

By the way, I will be trying my oil pastels on sanded paper next. I just don’t think Pastelmat works that well with oil pastels, maybe marginally better than Canson Mi-Teintes. In fact, I counted less than three light layers on the Pastelmat.

I felt like I wasted one precious sheet with the oil pastels. This must be the reason why on the Pastelmat cover, it had soft chalk pastels as a demo!

All in all, I do think Pastelmat is the best pastel paper for soft chalk type pastels or pastel pencils. They go on the surface unlike anything else I have ever used. I highly recommend investing in it if you love soft pastels.