Conch Shell in Conte Crayon

Conch Shell in Conte Crayon

Conch Shell

Conte crayon (sanguine), 24" newsprint sketch pad

This is a sketch of a conch shell that was on display in a drawing class in college. A brown conte crayon which looks like a charcoal crayon (long and rectangular) was used but feels more creamy on paper and not as dry as charcoal. The color is called "Sanguine" which is similar to brown or earth clay.

The large sketch pad used is very smooth and quite thin but not see through. Using this support allows the crayon to display its texture. This is a 2 foot by 18 inch sized paper, the largest size of drawing paper, which will allow adding as much detail as possible to the drawing.

The first step is to outlining the conch shell very lightly. The outline was done around the shell and on all the sharp and curvy edges of the shell. Once was outline is complete, the outline was done again but with thicker lines and more pressure to ensure the drawing is visible to the eye.

The shading attempted here was linear hatching and cross hatching. It is shading side to side, keeping the lines as straight as possible. Varying their lengths to the size of the shades on the shell gave it dimension. The lines are tighter where there is darker shade. There was no attempt to do solid color shading, only hatching with spaced or tight lines.