My Favorite Materials-Paper

The papers that I use for all of my prints and cards come from Red River Paper. Red River Paper Logo

 One of my favorite things about Red River Paper, is they have sample packs you can use to figure out which paper is best for you!  This is what I did when I first started doing my own printing, and it saved me so much time and money.  Here are my favorite papers, plus why I love them:

1.  Aurora White *My Favorite!*

 

Aurora White Paper from Red River Paper
I use this paper for all of my matte prints, and I have the greeting card version that I use for most of my cards that have a white background (just subject and not a fully printed page).  After testing all of the papers, I liked this matte paper best for a lot of my pastel pieces.  The texture and color of this paper portrays the colors of my work as closely as possible and is a great option for beautiful prints.  This paper comes in 300gsm which I use for prints and 250gsm which I use for cards.  This paper is also great for graphite drawings.  I have not tried it with other mediums, but I have used the aurora white cards to create custom cards with graphite pencils and it works beautifully!

 

2.  Paper Canvas

This paper is another favorite of mine because it adds some texture and allows me to make prints that looks like a canvas print, yet they can be easily framed like any other paper.  I love this paper for my full color prints, and you can also find this paper used in my cards that are full color.  My favorite prints to use this paper for are the cows, my butterfly, and the lupine prints.  They all look stunning on this paper!
*Red River Paper recently changed this paper so I will do an updated review soon once I can compare the two versions!
3. Polar Gloss Metallic
So far I have only used this paper for one piece (Spooky Pirate Ship) BUT I absolutely love this paper and plan to test it with more art in the near future.  When I tested the glossy papers for my spooky pirate ship print, this one was by far the best for the darkness of this piece.  The blacks are so dark on this paper, and the slight metallic shine to it really just made the whole thing pop.