Yupo paper is often used with watercolors, but there are many other media you can use on this wonderful paper. Here are a few examples:

Media you can use on Yupo paper

Pencil

pencil on yupo paper

Pencil will work great, it makes a very clean line, a little difficult to erase completely, you can even do a limited amount of smudging.

Colored Pencils

colored pencils on yupo paper

colored pencils on yupo paper

You will also make a very clean and strong line with colored pencils. You can mix them a little bit on the paper but layering is not possible. Trying to add too much colored pencils will result in the production of little balls of wax and pigment on the paper, as you can see on the picture.

Watercolor Pencils

watercolor pencil on yupo paper

wet watercolor pencil on yupo paper

Watercolor pencils will work great either dry or wet, they make a wonderful line. Still not possible to layer.

Felts

felt on yupo paper

Felts work very well, they slide easily on the paper.

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Yupo Watercolor Paper Yupo is a compelling and unique alternative to traditional art papers. It’s a synthetic paper, machine-made in the USA of 100% polypropylene. It is waterproof, stain resistant, and extremely strong and durable. PH neutral.

Oil pastels

 oil pastels resist on yupo paper

oil pastels scraffito

Very nice to work with on yupo paper, you can try to mix colors a little as shown on the picture, layering still very difficult. Scraffito is very easy and can produce very interesting effects.

India ink

India ink on yupo paper

India ink on yupo paper

India ink will produce a very strong contrasting black on the bright white of yupo paper. You can dilute it to obtain different shades of grey, then work it the way you would with other inks, watercolors, or liquid acrylics on yupo paper. They will stain the paper and once dry are very difficult to lift.

Pastels

pastels on yupo paper

Pastels won’t adhere on the surface of yupo paper because there is no tooth at all, but if you did build up layers of acrylics and gel medium or if you did some paper collage then you can have enough tooth to use pastels.

Collage

collage on yupo paper

You can try some paper collage, here I used gel medium to have the paper adhere on the surface and reworked the paper with some purple pastels. You can see the paper lifted in some areas, but I liked the effect.

Oils

You can paint with oils on Yupo paper, they work really well and are very pleasant to use on such a smooth surface. You can see a flower painting I did with oils on Yupo paper here

Acrylic

Acrylic works really well on yupo paper, you just have to protect the surface as it will scratch easily :

Layering Acrylics on yupo paper

Watercolor

Watercolor is the medium of choice on Yupo paper, with many advantages: You can lift out any passage you don’t like and repaint it, and of course you get wonderful textures when the watercolor dries on the paper.

Painting a yupo paper with watercolors: a few techniques