New Pastel Paper

I've been using the UArt brand of sanded pastel paper for a few years. It had only come in a tan color until recently when they released a "dark" paper. Depending on the grit selected, the color goes from almost black to a charcoal grey. I bought some 500 grit Dark and gave it a test run today.

We were painting at a local farm and I wanted to see how this new paper would work for plein air work. I was only using a limited selection of NuPastel sticks today, to keep my setup light and compact.

I was painting the chicken coop next to the big barn. My paper was 6x8", so I needed to keep things simple. I did not add a chicken as they were not visible from my view.

I found the paper worked just like the tan color, but I had a hard time getting the colors to pop against the black. My painting did not show the brightness of the day. With my limited selection of pastels, it was difficult. I feel this color paper would work really well for studio work and having my full selection of pastels available. This paper should work really nicely for some really bright subject matter, such as flowers.

Chicken Run, 6x8", pastel on UArt Dark 500.