The Middle Ground

Drawing on toned paper makes it easier to quickly build up form and volume because the paper provides the midtones. All I have to do then is focus on the lights and darks, with a white Conte / pastel pencil and a dark pencil (colour depends upon the paper tone).

Using coloured paper was a quite a revolution for me when a friend showed me their drawings. For a long while I left graphite pencils alone because of the work involved in building the building an image up.

Although I like the result, working on small images with the Conte / pastel pencils was frustrating because you couldn't get the razor sharp details possible with sharpened graphite pencil. So at the time of writing this article I've gone back to graphite for a time.

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