Hilarie Cornwell told me about pergamenata, a cellulose-based parchment substitute. I love it...tough like real animal skin parchment, but not greasy. It comes very smooth and I usually rub it with a gum eraser before drawing. It does like to curl up once painted, though. I once finished a piece late at night, went to bed, and woke up to find it had disappeared. Turns out it had rolled up overnight and rolled right off the desk.
It looks like a lot of people here work on paper, which is exciting to learn!
Yes - thanks for sharing @Hannah Charlton !
It rolled right off your desk... heart-stopping moment!
The fact that it's not greasy is really nice. I am sitting on the fence here - I like both animal and natural products and artificial and synthetic as I think we're living in strange times where we can straddle both. In the future everything may be synthetic. Like the prognosis of Blade Runner...
Pergamenata, UK folk, here: https://store.bookbinding.co.uk/store/search.asp
Where can you find this elsewhere in the world I wonder? Please post here if you know!
I have used Pergamenata and it is lovely for calligraphy but unfortunately, it delaminates with light watercolor washes. I tried to do a super tiny miniature rose for a friend on it but the layers separated with really very little water! I have heard from a well-respected calligrapher that something called “Elephant Hide” is a pretty good simulation but have never tried it.
Pergamenata can be found in the US at John Neal, Booksellers and Paperinkarts, and Elephant Hide can be found at Talas:
https://www.johnnealbooks.com/category/s?keyword=pergamenata
https://www.paperinkarts.com/hvyper-ant.html
https://www.talasonline.com/Elephant-Hide-Paper?quantity=1&number=821