Conte Crayon – Self Portrait

5 Oct
2009
Self portrait drawing in Conte Crayon

Self portrait in Conte Crayon

This is a Conte Crayon drawing I did for an assignment in Drawing 2 class last semester.  I felt the piece came out really well, with the chiaroscuro contrasting darks and lights.  Conte Crayons are pretty awesome to work with as far as drawing mediums go.  They can be messy, with a lot of dust accumulation underneath the canvas.

The assignment was to draw a self portrait using a medium of our choice.  I felt Conte Crayon would make for decent portrait work and in the end I’m glad I went with it.

For paper, I used brown Canson Mi-Teintes drawing paper which I picked up at Jerry’s Artarama.   The piece took roughly 8-10 hours to complete.  I had a lot of fun working on this, particularly getting the reflection of the camera in the sunglasses!

9 Responses to Conte Crayon – Self Portrait

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Evita

October 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm

This is fantastic Eric – what an awesome self-portrait!

I have never heard of those crayons before, are they like a crayon really or more like a pastel?

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Eric

October 7th, 2009 at 10:36 am

Thank you Evita for the kind comments!

Conte Crayons are actually charcoal based. While I believe they do contain wax (or a wax-like substance) they aren’t much like crayons or pastels. They feel like a stick of drawing charcoal – and can be just as messy to deal with!

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Evita

October 7th, 2009 at 11:15 am

Thanks Eric – that gives me a better idea about them :)

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Shannon Farrell

October 16th, 2009 at 10:26 am

This is amazing! I noticed the detail of the camera in the glasses before reading it all. It makes me want to start drawing again haha. Good job :)

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Eric

October 16th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

Hi Shannon, thanks! Sometimes I feel that the camera reflection is a little too noticeable… like perhaps it is a bit overdone. Still the effect seems pretty cool and I’m happy with how the piece turned out overall.

If you have some drawing talent and ever think about art school… I have to recommend TCC’s Visual Art Center in Portsmouth :) They’ve really been great. – Eric

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Jay Zuck

October 18th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

That is a pretty amazing and realistic self-portrait. I agree the reflection in the glasses is a nice touch.

Keep it up in art school. I am in my last term of art school myself and this takes me back a few terms.

I can’t wait to see your style develop.

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Einfach meckern

November 4th, 2009 at 4:29 am

very good self-portrait

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Melina

November 9th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

wow, that looks way better than my conte crayon drawing :/

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learn dancing

February 19th, 2010 at 4:21 am

Hello, wow..good tips i could draw a little and to me the mouth and hands are just a very hard thing to do..specially when the mouth is open..hope you put up more tips.=0)

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