Which paper should you use for finely detailed pencil drawing? Take a look at how a range of popular papers perform. This test looks at whiteness, tooth, paper grain and workability for fine graphite pencil drawing. It's especially important for photorealism and portraiture, where lack of graphite-holding ability or obvious grain can ruin the look of the drawing.
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1. Stonehenge Warm White 245g
H South, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Stonehenge offers a smooth, fine tooth that holds the graphite well but allows quite fine detail. The paper grain is apparent but very fine and even. This grain would suit larger-scale realist drawings; if complete absence of grain is required, a plate finish may be preferable. The surface erases easily and handles re-working reasonably well. The warm-toned paper will suit deeper toned drawings and sketches - for realist work where white highlights are important, I'd chose the bright white instead.
2. Sennelier Ink and Calligraphy Paper
H South, licensed to About.com, Inc.
This paper has an attracive warm tone which looks great under ink, but it makes highlights in a graphite drawing seem dull. It has a smooth, hard surface which doesn't have much tooth (as one would expect of an ink paper) but the grain does become very obvious under shading. It is also a very lightweight paper, and overall doesn't have a particularly good feel under the pencil. I like this Sennelier Ink and Calligraphy Paper very much for other mediums, but I don't recommend it for tonal graphite drawing.
3. Windpower Drawing Paper
H South, licensed to About.com, Inc.
This is a good quality general-purpose white sketch paper. Windpower Drawing has a fine but definite, irregular paper texture, so it isn't ideal if a flawless surface is required. It feels pleasant to work on, holding the graphite well, and standing up a fair bit of erasing and working. At 80lb - around 130 gsm - it feels a little light for my taste, but is comparable with similar general-purpose drawing papers.
