Bristol board choice, smooth or vellum?

[Skip2Alou]

Question in the title...

Are there overwhelming nods towards smooth or vellum or is it just user preference?

(general usage, just pencil/ink, etc...)

Thnx in advance

[Ian Miller]

Smoothe, both for pencils and inks.

I've been using smoothe ever since I started inking, which was about a year ago, and it's excellent paper. Then for my birthday, I got some vellum, and I tried inking on it, but it was hard to lay down ink, and then I tried pencilling on it, and the lines came out thicker and it was more difficult to add small details. I also had to sharpen my pencil every few minutes because the tip kept wearing down.

Smoothe, for me, is great. You can go crazy with detail, it's good for pencil, crowquill, and brush, and it's easy to erase off of. The only problem is that if you put your hand over the page, you'll smudge the pencil a great deal. I'm left-handed, so the top left corner of the pencilled pages are always lighter than the other areas, because of my hand going over it.

[timwellman]

most comic artists use the smooth. the vellum surface is for media that requires more 'tooth'... fully rendered pencil work, charcoal, pastels (just as mentioned about it wearing out pencils, it will also chew up markers and drawing pens)... though it can give a painterly effect sometimes for cover art. But, for comic work, stick to the smooth surface.

Oh, as for smudging pencil lines, a trick we learned in college is to put a sheet of tracing paper under the palm of your drawing hand, covering the work you've done

[Inkthinker]

Smooth, and sometimes plate-finish if I can get it. NEVER vellum, inks will bleed all over that.

[Robin Riggs]

Originally posted by Skip2Alou
Are there overwhelming nods towards smooth or vellum or is it just user preference?

Whatever you're most comfortable with. Vellum used to be the standard paper but most seem to prefer working on smooth these days. Personally, when I have the choice I'll take vellum. I can get a finer line with both brush and pen on it and the surface lends itself much mure to textural effects.

For pencilling vellum is much better for traditional looser pencils as it takes the graphite well but plate is easier to work with for those that want the super tight engravings that often pass for pencils these days.

[Inkthinker]

The last time I used vellum for inking, though, the ink seemed to to seep right into the paper and spread, causing fuzzy-edged bleeding lines. If that's not the result of the paper (which I always thought it was, since switching to a smooth finish solved the problem), then what was the cause?

[Robin Riggs]

Originally posted by Inkthinker
The last time I used vellum for inking, though, the ink seemed to to seep right into the paper and spread, causing fuzzy-edged bleeding lines. If that's not the result of the paper (which I always thought it was, since switching to a smooth finish solved the problem), then what was the cause?

It certainly sounds like it was the paper that was at fault there. I'd say you just got a bad batch. That happens every so often with Marvel and DC stock. Paper that's described the same can vary greatly over time too as the manufacturer varies the process without letting you know. The paper Marvel gives you to work on now is not the same as it was, say, ten years ago. Back then the vellum finish stock was really hard and crisp. Today's stock is rather mushy by comparison.

Do you remember which brand it was you had trouble with? I remember having some plate finish Blueline stock a few years back that took pencil just fine but every ink line on it spidered. It was like inking on blotting paper.

[Inkthinker]

I think it was Strathmore, but it might have been Canson. It was more than five years ago, it was part of a supply package for my department when I was working for Club Z!, and the person buying supplies had gotten vellum instead of the usual plate. I tried it, and "blotting paper" was a good comparison... it was just awful, I couldn't get a single fine line from the whole thing. So I swore off vellum and stuck to smooth and plate finish Bristol ever since.

I've only used pre-ruled board on a handful of occasions... I figure I got a T-square and triangle, and I know how to use 'em, and 25 sheets of bristol is cheaper than Eon or Blueline, not to mention that I get a few extra inches on each side with 14x17, and even more space on the 18x24 that I'm using right now.

[Justice41]

Every Pre-ruled bristol I have bought including my recent purchase Of EON stuff, has been a failure when it comes to ink. They all spiderweb on me. I'll use the EON stuff for pencil work but not for ink The bristol I bought was the same stuff Marvel was using a few years ago. The guy at Strathmore told me to call the distributor of Marvels paper and I bought 100 sheets of this paper. What makes this paper take ink so well is that it goes through an extra process to add a kind of wax or coating or something to the bristol that makes it very good with ink. It's 3-ply 500#, Kinda an inbetweener of vellum and plate clalled smooth. It's not completely smooth but not as rough as vellum or kid for that matter.It also is very resilient to numerous erasings. It's the best paper, other than the stuff I got from Defiant years ago. I should have gotten a bigger stack from them. After all the drawings I've done I still haven't finished the first pack yet. which would be 75 sheets cut to 11''x 17".

[Folgore]

Those of you who say Smooth is better for pencils, do you mean for the actual pencils themselves, or everything - including erasing?

I haven't really bought top-grade paper or anything, but erasing (which I do a lot of) seems to wreck most paper I've used.