Basic Drawing-Conte Crayon

The Assignment- Set up a still life. Put a small box on a table, drape with a white or light colored cloth, and arrange one white and two darker colored objects on and around the draped box. Shine a direct light on the set up to create strong light and shadow patterns. Then do the following:

Black Crayon- Draw the still life using the black crayon on a sheet of your 18" x 24" paper. As with a charcoal drawing, use the crayon to draw the objects and drapery, paying attention to shapes, relative sizes, and relative positions of the objects, as well as matching the values (local color and light/shadow effects) as closely as possible. The finished drawing should eliminate contour lines in favor of edges of value shapes. Spend about 90 minutes on the drawing.

Red Crayon- Rearrange the objects and draw the still life again on a new sheet of 18"x 24" paper, using the reddish (or brown) conte crayon. Do not use pencil first, as the graphite won't look good under the red crayon. All of the above still applies, but because your darkest marks will not be as dark as can be achieved with the black conte crayon, you may have to adjust relative values of everything in the drawing. Above is a student example from a previous semester. Again, spend about 90 minutes on it.

These are portfolio exercises, that must be made up by the last day of the semester to receive credit.