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Chalk Life Drawings (Conté Crayon Vs Chalk Pencil)

2 Jan 2022 — Updated 26 Jan 2023

Chalk life drawing with Conté Crayon

Table of contents

If you enjoy life drawing with charcoal but would prefer to use more color, then chalk is an excellent medium to try.

However...

Is chalk pencil or Conté Crayon best?

I have experimented with chalk pencils and Conté Crayons and I love them both. But they are quite different from each other.

Below, I'll show you examples of my favorite life drawings that use different chalk mediums and drawing techniques so you can see which you prefer.

Hopefully, these will inspire you to try chalk for yourself.

Chalk Pencil Life Drawings

The following chalk life drawings were drawn on blue paper with red chalk, I love this combination — there's something about the light-blue and the earthy-red color that just works!

"Girls back in red" Chalk life drawing on blue paper

Girls back in red chalk on blue paper
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red crayon, white charcoal on blue paper
Date
21 Mar 2005
Time
30 minutes

A reasonably quick drawing of a girl's back sitting on a chair.

"Man in red chalk" Life drawing on blue paper

Male pose Red & white chalk on blue paper
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red and white chalk on blue paper
Date
1 Mar 2005
Time
1 hour

Practicing my rendering technique with red and white chalk.

This model was really good. He was doing some very nice dynamic poses and his muscles were well defined which made for interesting drawing.

"Old man portrait" Red chalk portrait on blue paper

Old man portrait: red chalk on blue paper
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red crayon, white charcoal on blue paper
Date
15 Feb 2005
Time
1.5 hours

A portrait study trying out new mediums, red crayon on blue paper.

The next two life drawings combine more colors. The first uses red, orange, and white chalk on manila paper. The second uses red, black, and white chalk on blue paper. The extra colors give more depth and interest to these drawings.

"Sitting girl in red" Sitting pose in red chalk

Sitting girl: Orange, red and white chalk on manila paper
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Orange, red and white chalk on manilla paper
Date
8 Mar 2005
Time
1 hour

I really like this drawing.

It was rendered with two different types of red chalk, one light orange and one a stronger, darker red. This has given some subtle changes to the red tones throughout the drawing.

I also used white chalk for the highlights. Perhaps if I had used a slightly darker piece of paper then the white highlights would have been a little stronger. I feel that they are a slightly lost.

"Girl with black hair" Red, black, & white chalk portrait on blue paper

Girl with black hair: Red, black, & white chalk on blue paper
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red chalk, white chalk, black chalk on blue paper
Date
22 Feb 2005
Time
1 hour

This is my first attempt at drawing with red, black and white chalk on blue paper. I think it's going to take a bit of practice. I went a bit heavy on the black and it seems to have ruined the subtlety.

See more of my portraits.

I like choosing colors that also have different tones — it allows you to change colors as you build up the tonal layers. For example:

Chalk pencil pros

Here are some of the reasons why I like chalk in pencil format:

Conté Crayon Life Drawings

Conté Crayons are small chalk sticks that you hold in your hand. You can draw with them on their point or side to make vastly different marks.

Here are some examples using brown Conté Crayon on manila paper:

"Girl holding pole" Conté crayon life drawng

Girl holding pole: Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Brown Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001
Time
45 minutes

I drew the outlines a bit too dark on this drawing, apart from that I really like it.

"Man seated on block" Brown Conté Crayon life drawng

Man seated on block: Brown Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Brown Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001

This pose was difficult to render because the light coming straight towards me and his whole boby was in shadow. I feel like the most interesting poses have the light coming at about 45 degrees from one side.

And this is a one-minute drawing:

"Seated man with pole" Brown Conté Crayon

Seated man with pole: Brown Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Brown Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001
Time
1 minute

Just a quick 1 minute sketch that I liked. Sometimes the short ones can capture something that the long drawings cannot.

Here are a few more of my life drawings that use red Conté Crayon:

"Seated girl" Red Conté Crayon life drawing

Seated girl: Red Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001

This was a longer life drawing. It's hard to get detail with crayon so I drew this on A1-sized paper.

"Man's chest" Red Conté Crayon gesture life drawing

Man's chest red Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001
Time
5 minutes

I love the texture you can achieve with crayons by using a combination of strokes on the point and side of the crayon.

"Girl turning" Red Conté Crayon figure drawing

Girl turning: Red Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001

A quick sketch with red crayon on colored paper.

"Crouching girl" Red Conté Crayon gesture drawing

Crouching girl: Red Conté Crayon
Artist
Matthew James Taylor
Medium
Red Conte Crayon on manila paper
Date
29 Aug 2001
Time
1 minute

I think Conté crayon is a beautiful medium for short 1 minute poses because the lines and shading you can achieve quickly are so expressive.

Conté Crayon pros

Here are the reasons why I love Conté Crayons:

I'm not a big fan of getting my hands dirty when I draw, but I'm willing to ignore that with Conté Crayons because of the amazing gestural quality that they produce.

Best Chalk And Crayon Sets For Life Drawing

My chalk pencils and Conté crayons
My chalk pencils and Conté Crayons

Want to get started with chalk or Conté Crayons? I use and recommend the following:

Want to buy any of my life drawings? They're available on OpenSea as NFTs

My standard life drawing equipment

Best Life Drawing Equipment (What to Bring to a Class)

Graphite Pencil Life Drawing

Graphite Pencil Life Drawing (Rendering & Sketch Examples)

Charcoal still life drawing of my shoe

Still Life (Drawings & Paintings)

Life drawings drawn with different pose times from 1 minute to two hours

Life Drawing & Pose Time (From 1 Minute to 2 Hours)

A nice sharp pencil

The Art of Sharpening Pencils (Styles & Techniques)

Detail of a male model in white charcoal

White Charcoal Life Drawing On Toned Paper

A charcoal portrait of Angela reading a book

Portraiture (Exploring Different Mediums, Styles & Techniques)

A selection of life drawings in different mediums

Best Life Drawing Mediums (Examples, Tips & Techniques)

Sepia ink life drawing

Ink Life Drawing (6 Experiments with Nibs & Brushes)

Black and white charcoal study of folded fabric

Drapery Drawing (Folded Fabric Studies in Charcoal & Pencil)

A charcoal life drawing of a female model

Charcoal Life Drawing (Examples On White & Toned Paper)

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