Basic Drawing- Chiaroscuro Crayons

Today's Class- Today we continued our exploration of value with conte crayons, but with a difference. I started by showing a few slides of Renaissance era chiaroscuro drawings and prints, and then introduced a variation that we could do with the materials at hand- white paper and red and black crayons. The class did value drawings using both crayons together, with the white of the paper as the lights in the composition, the red used for middle value tones, and black used to deepen the shadows where appropriate. Above (drapery) and below (a hand) are student examples from previous semesters.

The Assignment- For today's subject, I put some of the various mannequin parts in the center of the room and had students do two drawings of one of the mannequins, using both red and black conte crayons. To make up this work you will need a figural subject- a full sized mannequin or statue, an actual person (dressed is acceptable), or a statuette/figurine large enough to see surface details. (to avoid the complications of faces, draw the subject from the neck down) Shine light on the subject to create patterns of light and shadow and do the following drawings-

Traditional Style- Essentially a red conte crayon value drawing to which black crayon is added to deepen shadows. Draw your subject on your 18" x 24" paper using the red crayon first, all the light and medium values. Then to achieve darker values, gradually blend black into the red, making it as dark as it needs to be to match the values in your subject. Spend about an hour on the drawing. Below is an example from a previous semester.

For the second drawing, view your figure from a different position (in class I rotated the mannequins) and draw again using the black and red conte crayons, spending about 90 minutes on it. 

Hard Edged Style- If you want, you can try this variation for the second mannequin drawing. For this alternative style of drawing, every value in the subject is broken down into 3 simple tones- solid white, solid red, solid black. The resulting drawing is nothing but solid shapes, no gradually shaded values. To try this type, decide in advance what range of value gets assigned to which of the three tones, and apply that consistently throughout the drawing. Below is an example from a previous semester.

These drawings are portfolio exercises, and must be made up by the last class meeting of the semester to receive credit.