As I’m sure you’ve seen on various posts, I mostly use Strathmore Bristol Vellum as the paper for my tiles.
Note: It's important to understand that this is not thin, translucent vellum. "Bristol" is bristol board, a form of very thick paper. The word vellum, here, refers to the finish on the paper. The vellum finish has a slight tooth to it. Bristol board also comes in a smooth finish, which is very popular for illustration work.It works really well for me for both wet and dry applications. It’s perfect for Zentangles because the Pigma Micron pens draw very nicely on it without a lot of bleeding and pencil shading is smooth and velvety.
I normally purchase large pads (19" x 24") and cut the sheets into smaller sizes using a mat cutter and a chop cutter. The previous Strathmore pad I purchased at Hobby Lobby for $26.95. I used a 40% off coupon, which made it $16.17. The regular price at Dick Blick is $22.69. It appears that Hobby Lobby is no longer carrying this large size, so I would have to purchase it at Dick Blick from now on, and not get the extra coupon savings.
Recently, I used the end of my current pad, and went to the local Dick Blick to purchase another. It turned out that they didn’t have it in stock. They only had smooth finish in the Strathmore 300 series.
However, they did have it in the Dick Blick brand. I had never tried the “house” brand papers before. I didn’t want to purchase as large and expensive amount unless I knew it worked well. So I purchased a smaller tablet that would allow me to cut 3.5" tiles with a minimum of waste.
I ended up getting the 11" x 14" pad. It was $4.49, which is reasonable for experimenting. The regular price on the Dick Blick, 19" x 24" pad is $11.49. That’s a lower price than the Strathmore with a coupon!
Right off the bat, you should know that the Strathmore pads have 20 sheets and the Dick Blick have 15. That is 25% less paper, which means I would have to purchase pads of paper more often, because I would run out sooner.
How does it break down by price? Strathmore = $1.1345 per sheet. Dick Blick would be $.76 per sheet. That’s a considerable difference that would add up quickly over time. I guess I wouldn’t mind going to Dick Blick’s more often, if necessary.
How do the two different brands perform? I did a bunch of tests to find out.
The top image is the Strathmore and beneath that is the Bristol board from Dick Blick. There are some tiny differences. The most notable is that the Strathmore paper seems to be slightly (very slightly!) more absorbant. If you look at the Red “Copic” in the upper right, you’ll see that the “dot” bled more. I did both dots the same, counting to 3, slowly while holding the pen in one spot. You can see it also where I used the alcohol-based black Sharpie. It bled a little more on the Strathmore paper.
There were some slight differences when I applied water to various pen marks. I’m not sure how realistic the test was, though because I just used a water brush and stroked over them.
I flipped the two tiles over, and did some tests on the other side, also. The reason for this is the the Strathmore has more texture on one side than the other. The Dick Blick appeared to be about the same on both sides.
As for the pencil tests, they are virtually identical.
On this side, you can see that there is slightly more bleed through on the Strathmore tile than on the Dick blick. That confirms the increased permeability of the the Strathmore paper. Other than that, they appear to be almost identical.
Even the color of the paper, itself is identical.
After all of this experimentation, would I recommend the less expensive Dick Blick paper? Yes, absolutely. The cost breakdown, using 19" x 24" paper, cut into 3.5" tiles is $.038 per tile for the Strathmore, where as for the Dick Blick it would be $.025. I’m always happy to save money where I can, given the expense of art materials. I will continue to use both papers until I run out of the tiles I just cut, but I will switch to the Dick Blick for future purchases.
Here are links to both papers at Dick Blick:
Dick Blick Bristol Vellum Strathmore Bristol Vellum (at Dick Blick)