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!
If you’re interested, you can find the reference photo on this site’s About Page.
Conte Crayons are basically hard pastels that are made with charcoal. The sticks are about a quarter-inch square wide, and 3 inches long. Being charcoal based they can get all over the place, so set up some newspapers or covering before working with them.
The set I used for this portrat was Conte’s Portrait set of 12:
Conte Portrait Crayons, 12 Pack
Conte Portrait Crayons, 12 Pack
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
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?
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!
Thanks Eric – that gives me a better idea about them
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
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
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.
very good self-portrait
wow, that looks way better than my conte crayon drawing :/
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)