The translucent vellum paper has a slight waxiness to the surface which allows you to blend the colors more so than textured paper (at least the ones I've used in the past). That bieng said its a gift and a curse, you have to work extremely slow and methodically, very light layers of color and build up the values. I've found in a couple of areas I applied to much color and that waxiness to the paper began to clump up and almost reject any further application. Thanks dudes