The Best Paper for Pastels UK

Written by Paul Worrall

Paper matters more with pastels than with almost any other medium, and it’s the thing beginners underinvest in most consistantly. With paint, the canvas or paper is a surface you work on top of. With pastels, the paper’s texture — its “tooth” — is doing active work, physically gripping pigment particles and holding them in place. Put pastel on the wrong paper and even the best set of Sennelier or Unison Colour pastels will disappoint you; put it on the right paper and a mid-range set can genuinly surprise you.

I’ve spent 16 years in the UK art supplies industry and now run Discount Art Supplies, used by over 36,000 UK artists every week. This is the honest breakdown of what’s actually worth buying, and why tooth matters more than almost any other spec on the packet.

Why Tooth Matters More Than Anything Else

“Tooth” refers to the texture of a paper’s surface — how much physical grip it has to catch and hold pastel pigment. Too little tooth (like standard cartridge or printer paper) and pastel simply slides off or fails to build up in layers. Too much tooth in the wrong direction and you’ll chew through soft, expensive pastels far faster than necessary, wearing them down against an overly aggressive surface.

The right amount of tooth lets you build multiple layers of colour — genuinly the single biggest advantage proper pastel paper has over a standard drawing surface, and the main reason serious pastel work looks so much richer and more luminous than a quick sketch on ordinary paper.

1. Clairefontaine Pastelmat — Best Overall, Best Sanded Paper

Pastelmat has become close to the industry standard among serious pastel artists, and having watched what people reorder again and again, it’s genuinly earned that reputation. Its micro-porous surface grips pigment exceptionally well, letting you build up an extraordinary number of layers without the paper filling up and refusing to accept more colour — a real limitation on cheaper papers.

It’s noticeably kinder to your pastels than heavily sanded papers like UART, since the tooth works differently — gripping through texture rather than pure abrasive grit, which means less wear on soft, expensive sticks over a long painting session.

2. Canson Mi-Teintes — Best Classic, Most Versatile

Mi-Teintes has been the default choice for pastel artists for decades, with two genuinely different working surfaces on either side of the same sheet — a fine “honeycomb” texture on one side, a smoother, more subtle grain on the other. That versatility, combined with a genuinly enormous colour range, makes it a sensible all-rounder for both oil and soft pastel work.

It won’t hold as many layers as Pastelmat or a properly sanded paper before filling up, but for artists who prefer a lighter, more traditional pastel technique rather than heavy, built-up layering, that’s rarely a real limitation.

3. Sennelier La Carte Pastel Card — Best for Heavy Layering

La Carte uses a genuinly distinctive cork-based coating that grips pastel with real tenacity, and it’s a natural pairing with Sennelier’s own extra-soft pastels — both products designed by the same manufacturer to work together. It holds an exceptional number of layers, making it a strong choice for artists who build up colour gradually and extensively before a piece is finished.

The trade-off is a firmer, slightly more textured feel underhand than Pastelmat, and it’s a premium price point. For anyone doing genuinly ambitious, heavily layered pastel work, it’s worth the investment.

4. UART Sanded Pastel Paper — Best Professional Sanded Paper

UART is a genuinely serious, purpose-built sanded paper, available in multiple grit levels so you can choose exactly how aggressive the tooth is for your working style — finer grits for detailed work, coarser grits for bold, heavily worked pieces. It’s popular among professional pastel artists specifically because that consistency and choice of grit gives real control over the finished texture.

Being genuinely sanded, it wears pastels down faster than Pastelmat or Mi-Teintes, and it’s a more specialist purchase — not the paper I’d recommend as someone’s first pastel surface, but a genuine step up once you know exactly what working texture suits your style.

5. Daler-Rowney Murano Pastel Paper — Best Budget

Murano is the sensible starting point for anyone new to pastels who doesn’t want to commit to premium paper prices before knowing whether the medium suits them. It has a genuine, honest tooth that handles both oil and soft pastel reasonably well, at a price that makes practising and making mistakes affordable rather than stressful.

It won’t hold anywhere near the layers of Pastelmat or La Carte, and serious pastel artists tend to move on from it fairly quickly. But as a first paper to learn the medium’s fundamentals on, it does the job properly.

Paper for Oil Pastels vs Soft Pastels — What’s Different

Most of the papers above work reasonably well for both media, but the priorities shift slightly depending on which you’re using. Soft pastel relies almost entirely on the paper’s tooth to hold powdery pigment in place, so texture is everything — sanded papers like UART and coated card like Pastelmat and La Carte genuinly shine here.

Oil pastel, having its own oil-based binder, is less dependent on aggressive tooth to stay put, since the pigment itself has some inherent stickiness. A moderately textured paper like Canson Mi-Teintes often suits oil pastel better than a heavily sanded surface, which can wear down oil pastel sticks unnecessarily fast without adding much practical benefit. Our best oil pastels guide covers the medium itself in more detail.

Fixative — Do You Need It?

Fixative is a genuinly divisive topic among pastel artists, and it’s worth understanding both sides before buying one automatically. Spraying fixative over soft pastel work protects it from smudging and can help set lower layers before adding more colour on top — useful for heavily layered pieces. The honest downside is that fixative can darken colours and slightly dull the luminous, chalky bloom that makes soft pastel distinctive in the first place, which is why some serious pastel artists avoid it almost entirely and rely on careful framing behind glass instead.

If you do want to use one, apply it in light, even coats rather than one heavy spray, and always test on a scrap piece first — different fixatives and different pastel brands react differently, and a heavy-handed first attempt on a finished piece is a common, frustrating mistake.

Which Should You Buy?

If you want the paper most serious pastel artists actually reach for, Pastelmat is the standout choice and works beautifully for heavily layered soft pastel work. Canson Mi-Teintes is the versatile classic, good for both oil and soft pastel and a sensible default if you’re not sure yet what technique suits you. Sennelier La Carte and UART are for artists who already know they want maximum layering capacity or precise control over grit. And Daler-Rowney Murano is where to start if you’re new to the medium and want to learn without a premium price tag.

To complete a proper pastel kit, our guides to the best oil pastels and the best soft pastels cover the pastels themselves in full.