Canson Mi-Teintes Touch is a new pastel paper to me. Not too long ago I wrote a blog post about the best pastel papers on the market. Fellow artist and friend Jane Gardiner suggested Canson Mi-Teintes Touch which she uses regularly for her drawings. I trust her judgment so put it on my list ‘to try’. Not long after I visited an art supply shop and saw a pad of it and bought it.
Canson Pastel Papers
Canson is a well trusted and long established brand (it’s ‘only’ been going for 450 years). So I would trust any paper by them is good, long lasting and lightfast. Mi-Teintes Touch is a heavy weight card (355gsm), which feels quite similar to my favourite paper Colourfix by Art Spectrum. The Mi-Teintes Touch is a little softer to the touch, like a flat suede. It felt really nice.
Working with Mi-Teintes Touch
I have been working on a small self portrait on a sheet of Flannel Grey Mi-Teintes Touch (hoping to publish a video of the painting process soon, so stay tuned). The pastel slides on it beautifully. The soft surface gives it a real nice ‘touch’ and it blends and layers very well indeed. Although Mi-Teintes Touch is a heavy card, like Colourfix, it cannot take as much punishment as Colourfix. I did notice the ‘tooth’ filling up at some stage. Mi-Teintes Touch can take various mediums such as pencil, acrylic paint, pastel etc. It can take water-based paints and you can use water with your pastel work as well.
Details
Heavy Card
Mi-Teintes Touch is miles away from a thinner pastel paper such as the traditional Mi-Teintes or an Ingres paper. It is much sturdier card and the soft tooth will allow you a reasonable amount layering.
Colours
The 10 colours of the papers are beautiful and mostly in the grey tones. Some colours are missing though. I would have liked a cream, and some more pink, red or blue colours in the collection.
Lightfastness
Jane told me she has done a 2 year lightfastness test with Mi-Teintes Touch paper by hanging it up in her studio. Happily she has noticed no discoouring whatsoever. That is impressive indeed. So we do not have to worry about lightfastness.
Sizes
The paper comes in pads of 24x32cm (£18.50) or 30x42cm (£23) or in loose sheets of 50x65cm (£4.30).
Comparison with Colourfix
Mi-Teintes Touch:
- Beautiful and soft
- Lovely grey muted colours but some colours missing
- Sturdy card support
- Can take layering but not endlessly
Compare to Art Spectrum Colourfix:
- Has bigger sheets (50x70cm at £5.10)
- Can take more layering
- Has more colours
- Has more tooth and is coarser
- Is slightly more expensive
Verdict
Canson Mi-Teintes Touch feels gorgeous and is a pleasure to work on. If the colours are good for you, you are after a sturdy heavy weight pastel card, and you don’t need endless tooth, it could be the perfect paper for you.
* Buy Canson Mi-Teintes at Jackson’s (ships worldwide)
Have you used Mi-Teintes Touch, then let me and other readers know what you think of it in the comments below!
PS: Art Spectrum Colourfix has a new range of pastel paper called ‘Smooth’, which I have not tried before and which sounds like it is close to the Mi-Teintes Touch.
Further Reading
- read my article on the best pastel papers out there
I just recently purchased the Mi-tientes Touch paper and boy am I frustrated! I am a hobby artist and was excited when my purchase of this paper arrived. Unfortunately, I just cannot get my soft pastels to adhere at all. I use various pastels such as Sennelier, Unison, Blue Earth etc. I was hoping to achieve a nice uniform covering of areas (details,details), shame I can't seem to grasp working loosely. Anyway, I tried putting on the colour straight from pastel, using Sofft tools, paper stumps, colour shapers etc, to no avail. I think it would be great for coloured pencils, pastels not so much. Don't know where I'm going wrong! Help..
You might want to applying the pastel without any tools, just using a pastel stick directly on the paper. I hope that helps. I love this paper!
I'm looking for some good quality paper for my large scale drawings…like 42 inches x 72 inches
can you help me with that…
Is this paper available in larger scrolls
I am not aware of any pastel papers that large, but what you can do is get some pastel primer (Art Spectrum does a good one) and apply that to paper (in the required size). Hope that helps!
Loved your thoughts. Thanks! 😊
I've been using Mi-Teintes Touch and I don't have any other papers to compare it to, but so far I really like it. My struggle with it is the beautiful border around the side. It's a great look, but it's so delicate that even using art tape and dulling almost all the stick before putting it on the border. When I remove the tape at the end of my piece, it always damages the white border and peels it away in places.
How have you combat that issue using Mi-Teintes touch? Do other papers have the same type of delicate white border? How do you keep it clean?
Sorry if that's way to many questions. 😂
Tamara
I often battle with tape not sticking enough or being too sticky and ripping the paper! I sometimes use clamps but that doesn’t work very well with a larger drawing board and smaller paper. Can’t say I’ve particularly noticed the bordered of Mi-Teintes Touch being difficult. I don’t use the borders as the end or edge of my paintings. I usually buy very large sheets and cut to size so to me the borders are just waisted space. Colourfix has borders too but Sennelier La Carte does not. I’d suggest trying different tape and/or clamps? Hope that helps!
Hi sophie,
I’m pastel artist( beginner) , love ART spectrum colourfix paper and UART papers. I want to know why you don’t prefer Pastelmat over colourfix or uart. Could you please say pitfalls of Pastelmat. Whole world loves Pastelmat, but I find that paper very rigid…can’t blend easily like the other papers…Please opine
Hi, thanks for your comment! I love all those pastel papers, but yes, they are a little different. There are no pitfalls for Pastelmat, promise! I love Colourfix because it really can take endless layers of pastels (great for fixing mistakes!). Most sanded papers don’t blend very well – a lightweight drawing paper would blend much better. I suppose it is all personal: different strokes for different folks!