[Chris Saper]

Hi Michael,

For charcoal work I like Canson gray; for conte, a Canson cream; on both I use the smooth side since I don't like the regular screen-like texture the rough side has.

For water-based oil (transparent monochrome) I use Utrecht's acrylic primed linen. For regular oil, I'll either use a cheap acrylic-primed cotton duck or my treasured, hand-mounted oil-primed linen.

So I guess I am saying that (for the most part) I use the same grade and type of materials I would use in a commission piece. To me, gaining practice with materials that behave differently from what you regularly work on limits the value of the practice. This makes sense to me for a couple of reasons: I rarely have any interest in keeping the oils, so I most frequently wipe them down at the end of open studio. (The plus is, of course, that they're already toned for the next time.) My learning occurs at the easel, not afterward. The Canson is cheap, and it can't be re-used, but I have more frequently kept the result at the end of a session than I have the oils.

If I work in pastel I'll grab some Canson; The Wallis is too expensive, even though it is presumably re-usable. Even when I go to life drawing, I'll use good quality paper, not newsprint. I can't count the number of times I have done work I'd like to keep, and it has rotted on the newsprint it's on.

The times I've used watercolor in open studio are generally too stressful to want to remember (maybe I'll post one if I get the strength), but I used the same cold-pressed paper I would regularly use. The watercolor papers are so very different in their behavior that you need to become familiar with each.

All of this being said, I also see open studio as the time to experiment! So you should do that, too!