Paper Selection for Drawing Series

Starting a new drawing is easy for me.  I just start putting marks on the paper. Beginning a new series of drawings, however, requires many, many decisions. What type paper do I want to use? As with everything in life today, the choices are almost endless.  I decided to use gray paper for my larger drawings.  It is a light gray so that graphite shows up well.  Also, I decided to use white charcoal for the highlights on these drawings, so gray allows for that.  I wanted a textured paper, so I chose one with a slight texture. I paint on rough paper and I did not want to use paper that was too rough.  Drawing six above shows how both the dark pencil and white charcoal show up well on gray paper.  I must say that backs are soooooooo fun to draw!  The subtle details of the back muscles are endlessly fascinating to me.   

Decisions, Decisions

Starting a new drawing is easy for me. I just start putting marks on the paper. Beginning a new series of drawings, however, requires many, many decisions. What type paper do I want to use? As with everything in life today, the choices are almost endless. I decided to use gray paper for my larger drawings. It is a light gray so that graphite shows up well. Also, I may decide to use white charcoal or color pencil on these drawings, so gray allows for that. I wanted a textured paper, so I chose one with a slight texture. I paint on rough paper and I did not want to use paper that was too rough. In the above sketch, I experimented with color charcoal or conte. I like this effect on white paper, but it did not look as good on gray.

The composition of each drawing calls for making decisions as well. In this sketch, the figure is 'winning' against the rock. She is pushing the rock up and off the top of the page. I will experiment with this choice in my composition as the drawings progress.

The number decisions we face in everyday life or as artists can become overwhelming. That is one of the weights we face in our society today. I wanted to limit the number of decisions I faced with this series. This lead me to drawings over paintings, to simplify the number of decisions I faced as an artist each day when I walked into the studio.