Sketching Papers

Janurary 2nd, 2026

From left to right: Canson XL 92lb, Strathmore Artagain Black Coal 60lb, Strathmore Black Mixed Media 184lb.

I did an experiment between 3 different types of paper, to see which paper performed the best for putting down the lunar floor, and the results were a bit surprising. I knew the Canson didn't blend well, but what I didn't expect was that the gradient bar I drew on each type of paper using a conte pastel pencil would differ in visual appearance between each type of paper with the Canson performing the worst by far. 

I drew the gradient bar on each type of paper- the brightest part of the bar is on the right, and fades as you go left. What I found, and you can see in the picture, is that the Canson paper did poorly. I could not blend the gradient bar at all, even under heavy pressure using a sponge. Mottling became more pronounced the more I tried to blend. 

The Strathmore Artagain Black Coal (middle) performed the best. I could easily blend a gradient bar made with a conte pastel pencil with little to no effort. No hard pencil witness marks were left. 

The Strathmore Black Mixed Media 184lb came in 2nd, behind the Stathmore Artagain. I could blend the gradient bar to show a gradual drop off into grey, but the witness marks from the pastel pencil are hard to blend, however, the color does look a bit richer. 

With the Strathmore Black Mixed Media 184 lb, one has to be careful when using a pastel pencil to lay down the floor, as not to leave witness marks. 

The Strathmore Artagain Black Coal paper is by far the blackest paper, for what it's worth. 

I may try using the Strathmore Black Mixed Media 184 lb next time for a richer lunar floor, but the difficulty in blending the witness marks does leave some cause for concern. 

January 2nd, 2026

Having recently completed my first "real" sketch of the moon at the EP, which actually was a learning experience in itself, instead of a culmination of learning from my practice sketches over the past few months. I thought I'd share some of my observations. It might help some, it might not. A lot of what I learned, was by trial and error, experimentation, and looking at a lot of other sketches done by others to figure out their techniques.

I found that watching YouTube and reading tutorials did not help as following a prescription does not help me. It does however, add to one's repertoire of strategies when confronted with sketching situations. I had to figure out what works for me (and this is a continuing process) and I suspect that may be true for a significant percentage of those starting out. There are certain things about sketching that are not explained in widely circulated resources, only figured out by experimentation. Everyone has their favorite methods, and what works well for them, may not for others. 

A clarification: This applies to using pastels for the most part. 

What I learned: 

Medium matters. 

I used my favorite go-to, my Canson XL sketchpad for my first lunar sketch at the EP. It worked fine for roughing in the sketch, but to my surprise, the next day, the lunar floor would not lay down, unlike my practice sketches! For my practice sketches, I had been using my least favorite medium, the Strathmore 400 Series Artagain coal paper (6"x9"), as I did not care if I ran out of that. What I found was that the Canson XL has too big of a tooth, which comes through the lunar floor. The lunar floor looks rough and heavily squarely mottled in the Canson XL paper, but on the Stathmore 400 coal black, it's smooth. 

I even tried putting heavy pressure on the sponge when blending on the Canson XL, no go. It would not look as smooth as it did on the Strathmore 400 coal black. I also tried laying down multiple layers of pastel. I ended up copying the rough sketch over to the Strathmore 400 coal black, and continuing on that medium. 

Shades of white. 

This one was a hard one. Everyone knows, from observing the moon, that the lunar surface is much brighter the further away from the terminator. The closer to the terminator, the lunar floor sometimes turns into a somber gray color before finally submitting to the blackness of the dark side. For the very bright white further away from the terminator, I found that using a pastel pencil to apply a layer of white pastel, followed by blending with a sponge at heavy pressure worked. Several cycles of this, achieved the look I was looking for, that is, the bright lunar floor furthest away from the terminator in the EP.

It's difficult to get blend the hard graduation line created by the layer of pastel laid down with the pencil on top of the white pastel created by using the flat edge of the pastel crayon, but it can be done. Heavy pressure with the sponge does it. 

A somber gray, a happy accident as Bob Ross would say. 

I tried creating the somber gray color of the lunar floor as it transitions to the terminator into the black expanse of the dark side on a separate piece of Strathmore 400 coal black paper. I used a gray conte crayon for this, but no matter what I did, I could not blend the hard graduation lines created by using the flat side of the crayon, even when I used light pressure when laying it down. The gray just doesn't seem to want to blend. It tends to cluster, probably because it's a more dense pastel than white. I gave up, and just accepted that the lunar floor on my sketch would be multiple shades of one color, white. 

Later, when working on my sketch, I needed to extend the lunar floor towards the bottom just a bit more. There was already black pastel applied on that part of the sketch. When I extended the floor, it created that somber gray I had been looking for. Quite the happy accident- so a black pastel base layer needs to be down, and white put on top, for that somber gray. 

The picture of my Gassendi Crater sketch doesn't quite capture this, but in person, naked eye, it's quite evident right at the terminator. I plan to practice on this, to see if I can create different shades of gray using this method. 

In retrospect, trying to create a gray floor using a grey conte crayon next to white, would have been too stark and noticeable. Blending white on top of a base black pastel layer to create that shade of gray that naturally blends into the white next to it, makes a lot of sense.