SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO SKETCH WITH....

Venice Canal walkway

I am sure you know that there are lots of different materials you can use to sketch with.  Regular graphite pencils tend to be the most popular choice;  easy to rub out! (tho perhaps a bit too easy to rub out, I have watched many an eraser-happy artist spending more time scrubbing away their drawings, than drawing.  As a student I was not allowed to use an eraser.  That focussed the mind and sharpened up the observation, I can tell you!) 


















In days of yore (love that phrase) artists frequently sketched using SANGUINE, a rust-coloured chalk – just look at the fabulous sketch below by Augustus John.

 Those artists of the past often used blocks of sanguine for their lovely images.  then, in the 18^th Century, in response to the graphite shortages caused by the Napoleonic Wars, CONTE STICKS were invented by Nicolas-Jacques Conte (interestingly, the British naval blockage of France prevented the import of graphite).  Conte is a drawing medium composed of compressed charcoal (or sometime graphite) mixed with a wax or clay base. 

Today’s artists are lucky enough to have a huge choice of either sticks, or pencils, in these mediums,  to use.  And use them I do…..I absolutely love them .

The choice is a bit mind-boggling, and I don’t want to bore you with over-wordy blogs,  so I will give you a brief rundown of the main types of “monochrome” PENCILS – you can buy sticks, but for sketching, particularly on location, pencils are cleaner to use. Sharpen carefully with a craft knife, ideally.

CONTE PIERRE NOIRE is a soft black that is rich, intense and matt.

CONTE CARBON PENCIL has a core derived from traditional charcoal, but is stronger, waxier,  and does not crumble.  I often use these.

CONTE CHARCOAL PENCIL is intensely black, and blends will with the red and sepia pencils.  It will give you finer control than traditional charcoal sticks.

CONTE SANGUINE PENCIL is a deep rust colour, which blends easily.  Lightly drawn, the texture of the paper shows thro.  Opacity increases with pressure.

CONTE SANGUINE MEDICI is a darker red, with less red oxide. It behaves similarly to the Sanguine pencil.

CONTE SEPIA PENCIL is like burnt umber. Gorgeous for shading.  With a sharp point, you can achieve accurate, delicate lines;  with a half-worn lead, the finish is more opaque and pressure gives dark lines.  It also blends well with sanguine, white, charcoal or Pierre noire pencils.

You can use any of these pencils onto white sketchbook papers, except the white conte obviously…but beautiful drawings can be achieved on a tinted paper, using the white for highlights, as I did for the peppers on the right here, drawn with black conte, and white conte, onto grey paper.

If you are well up with the technological revolution, and would like to see some stunning master drawings, for inspiration, believe it or not there are two APPS available, showing many of the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci 75 drawings, and Antoine Watteau, 100 drawings.  Click on the names to go to the itunes webpage for the inexpensive apps.

Managed to get this far before the wretched thing spat right at me!

If you do decide to try these pencils, do remember that your drawings are smudgeable…handy when you want to soften lines or add a bit of judicious tone…but not so good when it comes off on the opposite page. You need to spray fix your work…or find sketchbooks with tissue/glassine/crystal interleaves.  The latter means you can only work on one page, whereas I often like to work across a double-page spread, so I fix my drawings.

Venetian market seller, enjoying an icecream.  Molto Bene!

There is something very seductive about these materials;  the lines can be sharp, or velvety soft;  the darks are really dark and matt and opaque, without the sheen of graphite.  Do try them, they are really delicious to use.

Sketchbook materials

So.........what to USE in a sketchbook?  The answer is, just about anything.....pencils, coloured and plain, graphite, conte and pastel (dont forget to spray fix!)  ink;  watercolour;  gouache;  watersoluble art pens;  watersoluble coloured pencils; brush pens...............the list is pretty endless, and you need to experiment to find out what suits you best.  I thought I would share one of my favourites (apart from watercolour) with you.


A little while back, I discovered the most gorgeous stuff by accident, as I went out without my watercolours, but did have this little bottle in my kit.  I had had it for ages, and never used it, not even sure why I bought it. In fact, it was enormous fun, so  I eventually did a whole sketchbook - a spiral bound pad of watercolour paper, actually, so that one could then tear out individual sheets and frame if a masterpiece was achieved (! well, gotta live in hope), if not, then at least they stayed clean and safe.  No need to stretch the paper using this method.  The stuff I used is called 
DR. PH MARTINS RADIANT WATERCOLOUR, and comes in bottles with a rubber eyedropper thingy at the top.  You can use them direct from the bottle, or can dilute with water.
Here is a pic of the bottle:

I used just one colour - I had  a bottle in my pencil case,  and a dip pen, with nib, you know the kind?  That was for the linear work.  I also had a tiny spray bottle of water with me, and plenty of tissues.

I think the colour is Tobacco Brown.

I love the Prolene retractable brushes when travelling, the lids slip onto the handles, and I particularly like the square-ended brush:

So how did I work?  Well, realising I had left my lovely watercolours back at the appartment, I decided to be brave and try an "ink" sketch. The only "ink" I had with me, apart from rollerball pens which I did not want to use,(lines too regular) was this little bottle of Dr. PH Martins.  I began with a tiny bit of pencil to put things "in position" cos I am always slightly nervous of going straight in with a dip pen.  Then did quite a bit of "drawing" with linear work, dipping the pen straight into the bottle.    

Then, I left it to dry -  didn't have to wait long, but I really was not much impressed with all the hard pen lines everywhere, despite using a dip pen which gives you more variety to the lines, it still looked so stiff to my eye, so, always one to experiment, I gave parts of the pic a burst of water with my little spray bottle, just to see what would happen! I had no idea if the stuff was permanent, or might "run" as some inks do.    Wow!!!  Magic!  The lines began to dissolve where the water hit them, and realising what was happening, I quickly put some of the watercolour "ink" into a plastic watercup I had with me, added some water, and with my brushes, I reinforced some of the washes.  See that ripple of water under the pole in the Venice pic?  To do that, I put clear water onto the paper, and dropped some of the Doc Martins into it.  Yummy result!

A tissue can quickly be used to blot areas to stop too much dissolving going on if you want it to stop.

When dry, I found I could then add more, and do it all over again! And as often as i wanted.     If you want fine details towards the end, best to do this on the dry pic.

I loved working in this way, and used it for lots of different images, many of which did get framed, and sold in the end, which I rather regret because they are no longer in my sketchbooks!

Here is another, done on a different trip, and this time I added a few tiny touches of subtle watercolour colours, again, in the spirit of experimentation.  This was done in a small village in France, I called it "One and a half doors"  ! In this one, towards the end, I used the Doc Martins almost neat out of the bottle for the stronger, darker washes.  "Neat" is a good word to use, I like both of its meanings!

 The fab thing about experimenting in a sketchbook is that if you don't like what you do, you dont need to show ANYONE.

More sketchbook info to come!