Here’s a quick photo of what’s on my drawing table. I’ve been feeling the urge to draw and work with dry media lately. The first drawing was a super simple graphite shaded drawing that looked heavy and smudgy. So, I rummaged around my art supplies and found an old set of chalk pastel pencils and did a second drawing (it’s a green gourd – I’ll scan it soon) that was better but still less than subtle.
Of course new art supplies were already on the way – this set of 24 Carb-Othello pastel pencils from Amazon – so that’s what I used for this drawing. I like the chalk pastel pencils because of the way they lay down clean bright color without getting my hands dirty (‘cause I hate that.) They’re blendable too which helps set the pigments on the paper so the finished drawing isn’t so fragile.
I’m still not completely thrilled with how static this looks, but it’s and improvement, I’m trying for a light touch – almost casual – but with nuance in the colors and shading while keeping a sense of life. That sounds tough, doesn’t it? I’m also still on the fence about a background of some sorts. I had planned it to start but the clean look is nice too. What do you think?