Raven Study study

I hope you'll excuse the quirky title for this smaller sketch. I am nearly finished with a raven drawing that I've been working on for the last couple of weeks. It's taking me so long because we are beginning the process of remodeling our basement and I've been developing the architectural drawings for the contractor. I'll try to create a separate post to talk more about this process.

Turning to the sketch, the first thing I'll comment on is the paper selection. I am a paper nut and have a large 14"x17" portfolio packed with numerous different papers (I believe there are 15 or more different papers in this single portfolio and I have another!). I use different papers depending on the subject, the size of the piece, or simply my mood for that day. This is one of those times when I went back to a paper that I seem to be drawn to whenever I really just want to have fun drawing a piece -- Arches Hot Press watercolor paper. I use the back side of the paper which lacks the laid pattern of the front side. It's a wonderful paper for pencil drawing because it's quite robust, allowing the artist to erase lines, lighten previously drawn areas, or simply scrub in some really beautiful darks.

The reason I selected this paper for the raven was that it allows an extremely wide contrast range and also allows me to create some intricate details at a fairly small scale. It seemed to work pretty well for this piece.

I am going to really try to use Arches more often as I really like the results I can obtain with it and it feels a lot more like sketchbook or drawing paper than bristol board. It's a little finicky with hard grades (2H or harder) but if you use a dab of blending with a tortillion occasionally, you can avoid having to use extremely hard pencils.