Oakton College - Drawing Demo: Still Life Value Study in Conté Crayon with Directional Blending

Materials Needed:
One sheet of 18"x24" drawing paper
One conté crayon stick (any color except white)
Kneaded eraser
New blending stump
The drawing process will basically be identical to charcoal, except the material will feel a little different and you will need to be more careful while blending. Create a range of values and eliminate all contours. Draw larger than life, so the drawing fills the paper. Draw what you see in the background as well-make that part a bit blurrier and less detailed. Here's the caveat: you can't completely erase conté crayon the way you did with charcoal! Otherwise, the process will be the same. This assignment is a way to get more practice with values before we move on to more challenging assignments.
In this assignment, try some directional blending. If a surface is horizontal (i.e. a table), move your arm horizontally. If a surface is vertical (i.e. a wall), move vertically. For curved surfaces, use what you learned in cross-contour drawing to move across the surface in the direction of the curves.