Review: Fabriano Black Black Drawing Paper (300gsm)

Nope, there’s no typo. This paper is called the Fabriano Black Black.

According to Fabriano:

Fabriano Black Black is a range of uncoated cardboards made of ECF cellulose pulp. This paper is characterized by a very deep black colour due to the high quality and lightfast pigments used for its production.

The paper can be used for pastel, colour pencils, markers, passe-partout and portfolio presentations.

Paper weight available are 300, 370, 460 and 680 gsm.

The paper is available as sheets measuring 50 x 70cm, and as pads glued on a single side with these size options: 20×20 cm, 21×29.7 cm (A4), 24×32 cm, 29,7×42 cm (A3) and 42×59.4 cm (A2).

This is my first time drawing on black paper and the thought process is very different from drawing or painting on white paper. You can see with this sketch I’m still using my usual line drawing style. I’ve used coloured pencils and Zig pigment markers for this sketch.

The paper has smooth fine grain texture and works well with coloured pencils, opaque inks and markers.

If your pencils or inks are not opaque enough, the black of the paper will still show through. The black, as the name of the product suggests, is black black.

This is not watercolour paper so it’s not able to take wet media. Black watercolour paper does exists, such as Stonehenge Aqua Black and Somerset Black Velvet Paper. So get the appropriate paper for the media you use.

Fabriano Black Black is good for dry media and opaque markers.

If you’re looking for black drawing paper, the Fabriano Black Black is good and very satisfying to draw on. Pricing is quite reasonable too. At time of review, it’s US $9.82 for a 9 x 12-inch pad with 20 sheets on Blick Art Materials.

By the way, there’s also Fabriano White White paper too. lol. Can’t wait for them to come up with Cream Cream and Brown Brown.

Availability

You can find the paper on Jackson’s Art (UK) and Blick Art Materials.