The Stitch

I remember in high school I tried working on black paper with white pencils. I tried doing scratchboard, too. It doesn't come easily. You have to really exercise the old brain into working in reverse. Instead of adding darkness with your pencil, you're adding light. Try it sometime - it's not as easy as you'd think it would be!

Here is the next sketch in my series of Cayce drawings. The reference photo was very dark, and I really wanted to capture the luminosity of his figure. Cayce was the one who actually suggested that I give the charcoal paper and white pencils a try, and I'm glad he did because while I'm not entirely happy with the drawing itself, I love the effect.