Experiments with drawing with Conte chalks

Full size portrait - Christina MacLeod

Well, today I really got down to it. I finally started drawing again. After my broken finger episode and annoyingly dark days this Winter over the weekend, I have found a sunny day. I am on leave from work for two weeks, so it is wonderful to relax and just draw. All these drawings I will be doing for the next few months are experiments with a new style of academic drawing that I am trying out. Needless to say, there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of this was done in haste. It is not the most useful thing to draw from a photograph but I don't have a live model, and I suppose that practicing a technique calls for any inspiring object to copy - and my grandmother, Christina, was very beautiful and inspiring.

Head and Shoulders - Christina MacLeod

Here she is in a close up - head and shoulders version. I found this technique of using white and black conte on blue paper rather difficult. I decided to have a go based on some 'lessons' I had found on the web on how these classical academic drawings were created. It's fascinating and I am still very much a beginner in this regard and, in this experiment, I found out that I needed soft and hard chalks, as well as some conte pencils for the fine work. But, even though the likeness of my grandmother is very dim, I am happy with it. The likeness could have been closer if I had finer pencils to do the detailed work around the eyes.

Close up of Head - Christina MacLeod

I thought I would include this close up of the head to remind myself just how difficult it is to reveal those gradual nuances of the planes of the face and the details of the eyes. Photographs really do reveal the mistakes as well as make the work probably look more beautiful than it is - a funny dichotomy. It is so dark outside now, and it is only 15.45 here in London, UK. What would artists like me give for a little bit more sunshine to get more work done? It is absolutely impossible to paint or draw under electric lighting. So, that's it from Anne C M Campbell and the Drawing Vault for today! Tomorrow, sunlight permitting, I will be getting out my paints and hopefully putting up some work on my other blog - Painting Vault. Clouds, clouds, go away.