Testing Another Surface

I've been kind of lax with my blog entries this week because I've been busy experimenting with another type of surface: Wallis sanded pastel paper. This heavy museum-grade paper has a surface sort of like Pastelbord, but is more similar to Bristol board in weight. The image here is a close-up of my work in progress on this surface, and though I am happy with how it is coming along, it hasn't been all smooth sailing! Here's what I like/dislike about working on Wallis so far:

Likes:
- Toothy surface accepts layers of watersoluble pastel crayons, colored pencils, and solvent
- Rough texture makes working quickly easier than on smooth paper or bristol (I work at least twice as fast on this surface!)
- Can add white highlights at the end (don't need to leave white space for highlights)

Dislikes:
- Despite the fine sanded surface, the paper itself is very toothy and the grain can be difficult to overcome when rendering smooth textures such as skin
- Pencils gets quickly chewed up and need to be sharpened often
- Though durable and heavyweight, the paper warps slightly when water or solvents are applied

That's all I have so far, but I will probably do more experimenting on this surface in the future. Also, I expect to complete this work by the end of the week and add it to my online collection.