I’ve taken this week off as annual leave from my day-job, to both get some Artwork done and to make sure I use up my annual leave before I lose it.

I’ve also set up RSS and Atom feeds for my artwork (in addition to the feeds for this blog, website news, notes/posts, etc). You can find the details of the new feeds for my artwork on my Feeds page, or they should be automatically discoverable by a feed reader on the homepage of this website.

So far I’ve done two of the three life-drawing sessions I have scheduled for this week. Following on from February’s life-drawing I’m continuing to use the oil-free Conté à Paris sanguine pencils, but combining them with black, dark brown, and white pastel pencils, as well as carré crayons from the same manufacturer for larger areas.

I’m rapidly developing a new (for me) drawing process, for which I’m returning to using a tinted paper (to provide additional tonal levels).

First is a quick line sketch in a light graphite pencil to capture the proportions and main features of the model.

This is followed by blocking in the main areas of shadow with a sanguine carré crayon, and softening these areas of tone with tissue or cotton wool. Next comes the broad areas of highlight blocked in with a white carré crayon, and similarly softened with tissue.

The two steps above using the carré crayons tend to get repeated once or twice to build up deeper shadows and brighter highlights where necessary.

It’s currently taking about 30 minutes to reach this point if I’m working on A2 paper, so it’s a good time to take a break to allow the model to stretch, and fresh cups of tea to be made.

After the break I start working on the detail with the sanguine pencil, with occasional use of black, dark brown, and white pastel pencils where particularly deep shadows or highlights are required. Because this is finer work it currently takes me most of the second 30 minute session to complete this work. Finally the model’s tattoos, spectacles, or jewellery get drawn over the top of the flesh with the black pastel pencil (with highlights in white if needed, for example on metal jewellery).

I’ve got another life-drawing session booked for Friday where I want to continue working on this new process.