Nine Models for Life Drawing

 

12/13/25 varying durations (I used a white Derwent Drawing pencil in an Arteza black sketchbook, which isn't as black as the black paper in Uglybooks, but I brought it because it's larger. I think blacker paper looks better, especially when scanned.)

I’m disappointed that I got out of the life-drawing habit. For many winters, I used to go to Gage Academy’s open life-drawing sessions regularly. Then the pandemic happened, and afterwards, it just wasn’t the same. I enjoyed outdoor sessions at Gas Works Park for a couple of summers, but the organizer eventually ended that. When Gage moved to South Lake Union, I was excited by the new, modern facility (Comfortable heating and cooling! Functioning toilets!), but getting there just isn’t as convenient as Capitol Hill was. Other than Drawing Jam, I have not yet been to the new Gage for life drawing.

Derwent Drawing pencil in Canson XL mixed media sketchbook 

I’ve long been on model Shawna Holman’s mailing list for the various life-drawing events that she either coordinates or models for herself. She’s had a long-standing weekly series in the U-District’s Artist & Craftsman Supply store that I enjoyed once last year, but it didn’t become a habit. On Sunday mornings, the series often conflicts with Urban Sketchers, and somehow I haven’t made time for it on days without USk.

Her latest promotion was for something unusual: In addition to modeling herself (and she continues to be one of the best I’ve ever drawn), she also leads training workshops for new models. Last Saturday Shawna invited artists to draw the trainees following their workshop so that they would have an opportunity to practice. My calendar was clear, the situation was novel (nine models in one session!), and I was in the mood – I had no excuses!

The setup itself was unique and somewhat confusing: To give all nine trainees an opportunity to experience different pose durations, three models were on the platform at a time, each holding a pose for a different length of time. If I wasn’t paying attention to the duration assigned to the model I happened to be drawing, it might be a two-minute pose instead of 10 or vice versa.

At first, that was frustrating, especially because I was feeling very rusty, but I got over it quickly by developing my own plan: I stopped trying to pay attention to the pose duration and began each sketch as if the pose would last for only two minutes. If I had more time, I kept going, correcting proportions and adding shading. Or I simply moved on to a different model. So all the sketches shown here were of varying lengths, sometimes determined by the model and sometimes determined by whenever I decided to stop. It became fun and interesting due to the unpredictable nature.

This and the following sketches were done with Kuretake Brush Writer brush pens containing water-soluble ink.

The most fun were the last two sketches that I made on black paper (top of post). I had brought along a black Arteza sketchbook in case I had an opportunity to use it: A dark-skinned model sat in just the right position with a beautiful sliver of backlighting on his profile and arm. Then he turned his head slightly for the next pose.

Will the life-drawing habit stick again? I dunno . . . but I put a few Sunday sessions on my calendar.

“Nocturnes” at SAM

 

12/12/25 Seattle Art Museum

The Seattle Art Museum’s current featured show is Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism. It’s an interesting collection of mostly paintings with the theme of everything to do with food – how it’s grown, harvested, hunted, caught, prepared, served and consumed, and how all of that affected people in the late 19^th century. (A couple of favorite paintings at end of post.)

Bust of Jean-Baptiste Boussingalt by Aimé-Jules Dalou

Although Mary Jean, Roy and I had interesting discussions about the works, since most of them were paintings, I didn’t try to sketch any of them. Instead, I sketched one of few sculptures in the show – a bronze bust of Jean-Baptiste Boussingalt by Aimé-Jules Dalou (at left).

The most fun, though, was sketching a sculpture that was not part of the show: a huge wolf made of cedar called Companion Species (Underbelly), by contemporary artist Marie Watt (top of post). In the exhibit area outside the main featured gallery, the wolf has an imposing presence. I put Mary Jean in the sketch for scale, but I’m not sure I got it right – the wolf may have been even bigger than I made it appear.

Material notes: Unless I’m making a focused copy of a master, I generally don’t enjoy making graphite sketches in museums. It’s not very satisfying unless I can take the time to fully shade the way I want to with graphite, and it’s frustrating not to be able to go in with a bold brush marker. With white pencil on black paper, however, I can make quick sketches that are still satisfying in an unexpected way. Maybe it’s just the surprising appearance of light instead of shadows that makes the sketches seem more interesting. In any case, white colored pencil has certainly liberated me at art museums! It’s like making nocturnes wherever I go.

This huge painting, "The Shepherd and His Flock," by Charles-Emile Jackque, was my favorite in the show. MJ and I discussed at length the stunning light the painter captured, the composition, even the expressions of some of the sheep.

It doesn't show well in this photo, but I loved this painting by Claude Monet (from his haystack series) as a supreme example of optical color mixing. Of course, this was oil, but I wanted to emulate it with colore pencils -- all those subtle tones and hues made of tiny "pixels" of color.

Here's a different view of the cedar wolf sculpture I sketched.

New Lights

 

12/11/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

More extravagant with lights than the house I sketched last week, this family also likes the freeform look on their shrubs and trees. They put up a few more strings of multi-colored lights than they had last year, and a small, illuminated snowman, too. My favorite part is the quiet tree in their upstairs window.

Moral Dilemma Evaded: New Colors of Derwent Drawing!

 

72 colors at last!

Once in a rare while, my blog pays off in unexpected ways.

When I first reviewed Derwent Drawing Pencils back in 2018, I mentioned what many fans of these pencils have long complained about: Why hasn’t the British pencil manufacturer expanded the color range of this long-standing, unique line of colored pencils? (Though with good humor, some of us regularly pestered the company on social media whenever they promote the Drawing line.) With a muted, earthy palette that’s great for landscapes and animals, the range is still lacking some obvious natural hues – greens, a few yellows, one or two blues. Don’t landscapes usually include skies, foliage or water? Not to mention flowers! And wildlife sketchers might as well forget about birds!

With so many colored pencil lines offering a full range of hues, why do we care whether Derwent Drawing stays with its 24 earthy hues? I care because these pencils are unique in having a whopping 5mm core – thicker than any colored pencil I’ve used. And not just thick – it’s also amazingly soft and creamy. Because of that super-soft core, it’s my favorite for life drawing. At times, it’s almost like crayon or lipstick in its smooth richness of application.

A whopping 5mm core

Derwent Drawing Chinese White:
used more than any other single color of any line.

In addition, based on my stubs, I’ve used Derwent Drawing Chinese White more than any other single colored pencil (although I have a couple of greens in the Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle line that might come close). It’s still my most opaque white pencil. If only Derwent would add just a few more useful hues to the line, I would reach for these luscious pencils way more often.

You can imagine my ecstasy a couple of months ago when I saw Derwent’s announcement: The Drawing line has been expanded to 72 colors! Finally!

Then immediately following my initial excitement, I was beset with a moral dilemma: With my commitment to downsizing and staying downsized, could I justify buying the complete set of 72? I looked closely at the new colors, which I knew would be available open stock. When I started checking off the ones I “must” have, hardly any would be left behind! I might as well buy the complete set! But is that excessive? Would I be sliding back down the slippery slope? But how could I not buy all 72 colors of pencils I love so much! Aughh, the turmoil!

Blick’s website said the new colors and set of 72 would not be in stock until January, so that gave me time to wring my hands a while longer.

That’s when the most astounding colored pencil miracle occurred:

An image that probably caught the rep's eye

I received a message through Instagram from a Derwent representative in the UK who provides product training to retailers. She had found my 2019 blog post in which I talked about how vintage Derwent (called Rexel Cumberland then) Drawing pencils were the same high quality as contemporary ones. This was unusual, as most contemporary colored pencils are better than their vintage predecessors. The Derwent rep asked permission to use some of my images “in a training presentation about the heritage of the range.” I blushed with pride at that; it’s not often that my colored pencil history geekiness is acknowledged that way! I happily granted permission (with credit, of course).

As we further exchanged messages, I couldn’t help but express my excitement that the Drawing color range had been expanded. That’s when it happened: She offered to send me the full set of 72 in appreciation for the use of my images! (Thank you so much, Justine and Derwent!) 

Ahhh...that Good & Plenty scent!

So here I am, delighted owner of the complete set, moral dilemma evaded (at least this time). It’s been so long since I unwrapped a brand new set of pencils that I nearly swooned! The scent when I first opened the lid was very close to the intoxicating scent of vintage Prismacolors – which I can only describe as Good & Plenty. Since they are both soft, wax-based pencils, perhaps there’s something about the wax binder that evokes licorice (which I don’t like to eat but I love to smell)?

The original palette included lots of browns and
and other earth tones. (I've used these pencils for many
years; they show what I think of as Derwent's main
appearance flaw: The end caps chip with very little use.)

OK, enough about their scent – let’s talk about the new colors. Other than my daily-carry Chinese White, I hadn’t used Drawing pencils in a while – maybe since the last time I went to life drawing. It was like being reacquainted with an old friend to swatch all the colors. Included in the grid below are the original 24 along with the new, but you can see from my small “bouquet” image (at right) that the original range was mostly earth tones and white. 

I’m most excited about all those new natural greens in the bottom row – and not a single recycle bin green or traffic light green that so many large colored pencil sets include! All of these greens could be used directly for foliage and fir – a beautiful selection.

A few much-needed yellows are included, as well as several blues. With a couple of pinks, a lavender and a few orangey reds (some of which are questionably similar), even florals are now possible. I can also see that several skin tones have been added for portraiture. (All those new grays are the only ones I would have skipped if I had bought the new colors open stock.)

The complete 72-color range (swatched in Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook)

In addition to the original Chinese White, two new whites are included: a cool Arctic and a warmer Oyster. On black paper, they look quite similar, but their differences show better on white paper (in the fifth row). All three are equally opaque.

Two new whites, plus the original Chinese white (swatched in Uglybook)

Updated 12/15/25 I don't typically swatch colored pencils on black paper for reviews, but these Drawing pencils are so opaque that I thought it would be useful to see the whole range (especially given my penchant for nocturnes). Some very nice colors on black here! 

As I’d hoped and expected, Derwent is keeping the Drawing line focused on a natural palette. Although an urban sketcher might still need recycle bin and traffic light greens (though one of those new yellows could easily pass for heavy equipment), if all you sketch is nature studies, landscapes, animals and portraits, I daresay that the new Drawing collection is the only colored pencil set you would need. 

(Maybe it’s the only color range any of us need? I’m curious; I think I’ll make some mixing swatches to see how these natural hues come together. With such a limited range, the Drawing pencils had never been an all-purpose line, but now with a full palette, how do they compare with other favorite colored pencils? Hmmm . . . some interesting testing ahead!)

My new pencils arrived only a few days before I had received a commission to draw Ginger, a friend’s Papillon. I had never done a pet portrait using Drawing pencils, and it was a bit risky to do a commission with pencils I hadn’t used in quite a while, but I couldn’t wait to use them. I shouldn’t have worried; they were just as creamy, thick and wonderful as ever. Without the new colors, I couldn’t have sketched Ginger without supplementing from other sets: All four pencils I used on her are from the new selection.

I’m looking forward to using these on more pet portraits this winter.

12/7/25 Ginger (Derwent Drawing colored pencils and ArtGraf water-soluble graphite on Lenox Cotton paper;
reference photo by Bob Flor)

For historical reference: From top, oldest to newest (Apologies for the strange lighting in this image; the barrel color is brown as in the previous photos, not orange.)

Light and Dark at the Chapel of St. Ignatius

 

12/10/25 Chapel of St. Ignatius, Seattle University

With another atmospheric river promising record-breaking flooding in the region, it was hard to push myself out into the torrents Wednesday morning. (I’m totally safe from flooding here in the city, but some riverside communities have evacuated, and the state has been declared an emergency.) As if that weren’t bad enough, to arrive at the 9 a.m. sketch outing, I had to leave the house at 8 – the sun was barely up! When I retired, I swore I’d never leave the house in morning darkness again!

Beautiful interior lighting with subtle tints

Despite my grumbling, drippy coat and all, as soon as I stepped inside Seattle University’s Chapel of St. Ignatius, I was happy that I had come. The chapel has the most architecturally intriguing interior that I’ve sketched in a long time. I wish I’d thought to take more photos to show the fascinating lighting, but I was too engrossed in trying to capture it in my sketchbook.

Although I hadn’t been inside before, I find most churches to be dark inside, so on that hunch I brought along the black Uglybook that I’ve been making nocturnes in. It was a super-fun challenge to try to convey all the different values emanating from hidden windows. Sketchers who used color also tried to capture the varying colored window glass that tinted the walls subtly.

For my second sketch, I chose the wood crucifix. Very dimly lit from one side, it was a fascinating tonal study, too.

Finally, in the time remaining before the throwdown, I walked out to the vestibule to sketch through a large, wet window with a view of the chapel’s reflecting pool and trees wearing holiday lights.

Reflecting pool outside the chapel. The USk Seattle stamp wouldn't show up on black paper, so I used a tiny sticker instead.

After the outing, Mary Jean and I walked to nearby Piedmont Café for coffee (below). During the Big Dark, I have fun sketching nocturnes even in the daytime!

12/10/25 Piedmont Cafe, Capitol Hill neighborhood

Pre-Coffee, 6:38 a.m.

12/9/25 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Last year these neighbors were a bit more tidy with their lights. This year, they decided to take a freeform, minimal approach. It’s a nice contrast to their neighbors’ symmetrical design.

Sketching pre-coffee in the pre-dawn darkness, I enjoy the special stillness of this time that’s so entirely different from the same time during the summer. 

Café Javasti as Nocturne

 

12/6/25 Cafe Javasti, Maple Leaf neighborhood

I don’t sketch at Café Javasti, only five blocks away and my closest coffee shop, as often as you’d think I would. Although convenient (and they do make a mean scone), it’s small and tends to be a little dark. That dim lighting, though, gave me an idea: It would be ideal for practicing nocturnal sketching even indoors.

Sitting in back, I could sketch other patrons backlit by the large windows. I especially enjoyed sketching the chairs in this minimal way: a white colored pencil for the soft reflected light and a white Gelly Roll for the bright highlights.