Sanguine portrait

Drew a life portrait in sanguine conte chalk, with black and white conte touches at the Stamford Arts Centre Thursday night life drawing group.

Conte portrait

Used my new portrait conte chalks on a portrait on dark brown card. Drawn in the life class. The result is a bit shiny (partly because I also used a carbon pencil) and is difficult to photograph. Anyway here it be. Click to zoom.

Portrait conte drawings

Tried out my new box of 'portrait' Conte sticks at Stamford last night. As I'd hoped these were a bit more subtle. I still can't resist drawing outlines, but we all have our foibles.

Conte crayons and exhibition

After my last blogpost I couldn't resist buying these Conte carres. Box of 12 'portrait' colours on offer at Colemans at the moment (£8.99). They look nice in the box, however I might break them up to use on their side.


I've taken some work (life drawings and portrait paintings) to the Stamford Arts Centre for the students' Summer Exhibition. The exhibition is on in the Arts Centre gallery from Wed 31st August until Saturday 10th September, 9.30am to 9pm. Most of the work will be on sale. Come and take a look, have a drink in the bar or a coffee in the cafe.

No-one ever regretted buying art!

Life drawings

Two more drawings from the Life Class. I like to try different approaches, and respond to the model and pose before deciding what to do. It also depends what mood I'm in. The first is using Conte chalks on 'charcoal' Pastelmat paper. I used chalks on their side to produce larger areas of colour. The chalks I have are quite saturated so I deliberately pushed the saturation. I think I need to get more subtle colours.

The second is a more conventional charcoal portrait on off-white paper (cream Ingres paper pre-prepared using Sepia ink wash).

Life drawings

Posted a couple of drawings from this week's Life Drawing group at Stamford Arts Centre. All rights reserved.

Pastel portrait

We had a Venezualean Electronics Engineer as a model this week. Drawing was done using Conte chalks on green/blue Ingres paper. I perhaps overdid the colouration, but I'm pleased with the result.

Two life drawings

Charcoal and Conte chalk drawings, drawn at the Stamford Arts Centre, Rutland.

Life drawing - chalks

Life drawing at the Stamford Arts Centre. In black and white conte chalks, with a bit of black and white pencil, on blue Ingres paper.

Pastel portrait

Portrait in Conte pastel sticks, drawn at the Thursday evening life drawing group in Stamford Arts Centre.