Conquering Conté

Conté sticks are sort of like pastels … they are sticks made of solid pigment that are harder than pastels or charcoals, and result in crisp lines.  They can be smudged with stumps (or fingers).

Conté sticks were invented by Nicolas Jacques Conté, a French scientist. During the French Revolution Paris was under siege and cut off from the supplies of the best English graphite, so Conté designed a pencil which could be made with just a small percentage of graphite (mainly clay based) allowing it to be made from materials that could be obtained within France. 

set of conte crayons with blending stump

The traditional colours for Conté crayons were black, red, and brown although they are now available in may colours. The reddish sepia tone of Conté crayons is sometimes called sanguine, and was used by many Old Masters in sketches and preliminary drawings.

No Old Masters drawings for us … we were presented with the photo of a tiger that we were to draw. 

Using Artagain paper (in Gotham Grey), the first step is to sketch the tiger – trying our best to get the proportions correct. Then we use the conte sticks to add the dark stripes.  Blending is done with stumps and cheese cloth.  The lighter areas are cleaned up with an eraser, and the whiskers are also eraser marks.  Here is the final result.

I think it looks like a swimming tiger - although who knew that tigers could swim?  I'm beginning to enjoy drawing, and really like the conté medium.  It's less messy than charcoal, and fun to shade with.  One more class, and then I'm on my own.  I've come a long way in just a few short weeks.