Life Drawing from Home: Drawing on brown paper (Patreon)

Introduction

Drawing on brown paper can sometimes make drawing a little bit easier. Why? Because when we draw on white paper, we are mostly working in one direction, from light to dark. Starting with a mid-tone and working towards both light and dark at the same time can help unify your drawing and also boost the contrast of your drawing. Initial marks can often be in the wrong place and stand out more on white paper but with brown or toned paper, these marks tend to be less obvious and easily hidden as the drawing develops. 

White paper is a relatively modern invention, developed in the mid 19th century when bleach was added to the pulp to make it white. It was also treated in order to neutralise the natural acids to give it a longer life, hence the term ‘Acid Free’. It’s worth taking a look at some examples of other artists to see what effects drawing on brown paper can produce.

"Study of Arms and Hands" by Leonardo da Vinci (1474)

“Seated Dancer Adjusting Her Shoes” by Edgar Degas (1880)

Aims and Objectives

• To encourage you to look at the at both the shadows and the highlights, looking for the darkest darks and the lightest lights as a guide to create form.
• To use lighter and darker values to create contrast and push your drawing out from the paper.

Materials

You will need:

(For Exercise 1)

• Brown Paper – just normal postal packing paper will do cut into approximately A3 sheets. If you are going to buy some, make sure it is packaged rolled and not folded. Or you can buy single flat sheets of A3 brown paper or brown/kraft paper sketchpads from art suppliers.
• Masking tape – if the paper is rolled you will need to tape it down.
• White chalk or similar such as compressed white charcoal or white pastel will do.
• Charcoal pencil or black conté crayon, or just charcoal if you don’t have those, compressed charcoal is better.
• Putty or plastic eraser

(For Exercise 2)

• Charcoal pencil/conté crayon/charcoal 
• White gouache
• Fine soft round brushes – size 4/6
• Jar of water
• Small palette or something to squeeze out your gouache on

Reference images

Start by selecting a range of images. Either work from one of the online classes that you may have started to work from or use the reference material from our Patreon. Download the images, open them up as a slide show so you can quickly toggle between poses and time yourself for each drawing before moving on to the next pose. 1 – 3 minutes to start with. 

Exercise 1:

Step 1. Select an image. Study it for a minute or so and look for the lightest areas. With your chalk or white compressed charcoal, roughly block in the lightest areas of the figure on the brown paper. You will find that packing paper has two surfaces, I like to use the non-shiny side. Keep it general and loose, there’s no need to be precise. 

Step 2. Add some contour lines with your charcoal pencil or conté crayon if you have one. There is no need to spend more than three minutes on each one. Repeat until you have done at least five. You can remove any white areas or dark lines you don’t want with your eraser. With the lines that you are happy with, trying making them even darker by going over them again and make some of the whites whiter.

Taking it further. You might want to spend a little longer on one drawing, about 15- 20 minutes, using the same technique. Try not to rub out too much otherwise you can end up with too much grey and flatten the drawing. Better to darken the darks you like and whiten the whites, the lines that are wrong shouldn’t stand out too much and they can add movement and energy to the drawing.

Exercise 2:

Step 1. For this exercise you will need your charcoal pencil/conté or whatever you were drawing with in exercise 1, white gouache paint, brushes and water. Select some of your reference images and make a handful of quick drawings with your charcoal pencil or conté crayon. Three minutes per drawing maximum, at least five drawings in total. If you are not used to using gouache, choose a drawing that you are not so happy with to experiment on to start with. Strengthen some of the contour lines by making them darker and bolder. 

Step 2. Now squeeze a small amount of white gouache onto your palette, dip your brush into the water and start to mix the paint so that it is a smooth consistency. It might take a little practise to get the right amount of water to paint, it needs to be fairly thick so that it is opaque but also fluid enough to paint with. You can experiment a bit first on a discarded piece of brown paper so that you get the right consistency. Once you are happy with your mix, paint around the outer edge of your drawing. You don’t want the paint to mix with the charcoal otherwise you will end up with grey so you will need a fairly steady hand. If the paint is a little transparent when it dries, try adding another layer on top. This should help your drawing to leap out of the paper and really stand out. There is no need to throw away any unused paint as gouache can be reused once it has dried, just add water.

Taking it further. To take this a step further, experiment with blocking out big areas of the background. You can try different colours but remember to have strong contour lines so that your drawing does not get drowned out with the paint. 

Summary

Take a look at other artists drawing on brown paper, they go right through the ages from old masters through to modern and contemporary artists. See what they do and how they use drawing on brown paper. A couple of examples are Egon Schiele and Guy Denning and even an internet search on drawing on brown paper will give you lots of examples. Pinterest is a good place to look as it throws up more examples related to your search. 

--

This is the third of our weekly 'Life Drawing From Home' blog posts, commissioned using money from the Draw Patreon. Please do share your drawings with us, as we would love to see what everyone is up! Just tag us with @Draw_Brighton on social media or use the #LifeDrawingFromHome and #DrawBrighton hashtags. this article was written by Shelley Morrow - you can follow her on instagram at @shelleymorrow1 and you can see more of her work on her website www.shelleymorrow.com.

Thanks for your support!