Have you tried Strathmore Toned Gray paper?

I posted a small sketch on the gallery this morning, and Lewis expressed an interest in trying out the paper that I had used, so here is a quick rundown on my findings and the range that I use. Perhaps a few of you might find it useful. The gallery sketch was drawn/painted on their A4 Toned Gray Mixed Media paper. (It's American, hence the spelling of gray). It' a gorgeous cool mid grey colour, and has a very slight hair fleck running over it, but not prominent. Quite smooth, possibly comparable to an HP watercolour paper, but it won't take large washes quite as well as watercolour paper. As the name suggests, it's primary use is for mixed media, and it takes just about anything that you will have in your studio. This pad contains just 15 sheets, but they are 184 lb (300gm), so really hefty stuff and will take some rough treatment I would think. It also has a very sturdy back-board, so no need for a separate drawing board if you are taking it out to sketch. I've used this pad purely for studio work, but they also have the same colour grey, and also a tan colour in a spiral bound pad. These have 50 sheets and are thinner at 118gm (80lb), but still quite adequate for most media, washes would probably be an issue no doubt. The pages are an oversized A4, and there is a fine perforation so that each sheet tears off cleanly, leaving a small strip still attached to the spiral part. Same stout backboard and a great pad for taking out sketching, and for those of you who like to work on a tinted paper, as I do, these will take some beating. There is a smaller size available also, I purchased mine from Amazon, around a tenner each, a bit more for the mixed media. Well worth a try if you are running out of sketch pads and fancy a change.

So you have more experience of it than me Lew, the thinner tan stuff anyway. If you use it, that's a good enough recommendation for me... I've been out and about sketching locally earlier today, making the best of this gorgeous sunshine. Took the thinner 50 sheet pad of grey with me to try out. Just used an assortment of charcoal sticks and white conte chalk (the square stuff), and created a dozen or so loose but useful sketches to work from in the studio. It's a fabulous base for charcoal, and nothing looks more dramatic than charcoal on grey paper, highlighted with white chalk, simply unbeatable. Will be giving the tan a try out over the weekend, a much warmer background of course, so that should produce some interesting results. May try some sanguine conte pencil with white chalk, another great combination on tan paper. I don't generally post my rough sketches, probably because they are rough!, but I may include one or two of these on the gallery next week, as some of you do like to see how other artist's approach their subjects - we all work differently outdoors, I work rapidly, throwing caution to the wind. It's only a piece of paper so why worry about failures!