Originally posted 12 August 2009.
Last night we returned to monochrome to study glass. For our first piece, we started by covering the newsprint with black charcoal, smudging it up a bit with paper towel, and then using eraser and white chalk to draw the three glass vases. It was an interesting exercise, somehow different from starting with black paper. Dirty, too – at the end I had so much charcoal on my face I looked like I was in a production of Oliver! My super-talented Malaysian classmate commented that my one vase looked really transparent. That made me smile.
charcoal on newsprint
Despite the weirdness of the rolly carts and stools, The Torpedo Factory is actually a pleasant place to work. Our classroom overlooks the waterfront, and though the glass is frosted so you can’t see anything, you can hear the buskers all evening. Last night, one of them was playing the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly on panflute. Entertaining.
chalk on black paper
The second drawing was of a goblet, half full of water, with chalk on black paper. We were learning how much of the outline we could get away with leaving out without losing definition. A lot, as it turned out. The third drawing was similar, though this time it was of a larger vase of water, and we used red Conte crayon for the accents. I was especially pleased with how mine turned out.
chalk and red Conte crayon on black paper
When showing my husband my drawings this morning, I asked him if I could quit my job and play with chalk all day instead. I’m clearly better at it than sifting through the H.264 video compression standard. Alas.
Note: this is part of the Basic Drawing Series.
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