Silverpoint, Conte and more dry media in Easel by Zaweba
Water-soluble graphite, silverpoint, watercolour pencils, Conte, sanguine, chinagraph and more: a guide to the dry media added in Easel by Zaweba 1.1.
Version 1.1 of Easel by Zaweba brought a long list of extra dry media into the studio, alongside the original pencils, charcoal, pastels and crayons. Several of them stop behaving like dry media once water arrives, and one of them changes as the picture ages. Knowing which is which is most of the skill.
Here is the full set, grouped by what they do, with ideas for using each.
Graphite in new forms
Water-soluble graphite looks like an ordinary pencil until you bring water to it. Then the line loosens into a grey wash. It is a quick way to lay in tone over a sketch without switching to paint. Draw your structure, then soften the shadows with water.
Woodless sticks are solid graphite with no casing, traditionally used for broad side strokes and big tonal areas. Graphite powder goes further still, for soft fields of grey without visible strokes.
Silverpoint
Silverpoint is the oldest of the set and the most particular. It needs a ground to work on, as it does in real life, so prepare for that rather than expecting it to mark any surface. Silverpoint also tarnishes with age, and when you age the picture in Easel it changes the way old silverpoint drawings have.
It suits patient, delicate work: portraits, botanical studies and careful line drawings built up with hatching.
Pencils that dissolve
Watercolour pencils and ink pencils both dissolve under water. The difference is what happens next. Ink pencil dries permanent, so once a wet area has dried you can work over it without disturbing it. Use ink pencil for an underdrawing you want to keep, and watercolour pencil when you are happy for colour to move.
Pastel pencils and charcoal pencils sit alongside them. They give the look of pastel or charcoal with a point for detail.
Charcoal, chalks and crayons
Easel adds compressed, willow and white charcoal. In the real studio willow is light and easy to dust back, compressed is denser and darker, and white charcoal is for highlights on toned grounds.
Conte and sanguine are the traditional red, brown and earth sticks used for figure drawing. They look especially good on toned or kraft paper, where you can work down to darks and up to lights. Pavement chalk is broad and bright, made for big colourful marks. Chinagraph is the waxy pencil people use to write on glass and glazed surfaces, so try it on the slick grounds.
Getting a good result
Match the medium to the surface first. Chalks and pastels want tooth, chinagraph is at home on a slick surface, silverpoint wants its ground. Then think about water. If you plan to wet the drawing later, decide whether the lines underneath should stay soluble or should be permanent ink pencil.
Pressure matters too. In Easel pressure sets how deep the tip reaches into the grain as well as how much it lays down, so press lightly to sit on the top of the grain and harder to push into it. Build gradually rather than pressing hard on the first stroke.
When the drawing is finished, use fixative to stop dry media smudging while you work over or beside it.
Mistakes to avoid
Don't bring water to an area of watercolour pencil you meant to keep crisp. Don't expect silverpoint to make bold darks, it is a quiet medium. And don't expect waxy chinagraph to behave like a soft pastel on toothy paper. Each of these dry media has a job, and Easel by Zaweba lets you try them all before deciding which ones you would buy for real.
