Life drawing builds on observational strategies encountered in basis programs. With sinopia —the preliminary sketch found on a layer of its own on the wall beneath the fresco, or portray on freshly unfold, moist plaster—one reaches the purpose at which a work that merely served as technical preparation turns into a formal drawing expressing a creative intention.

With the three colors, Nicolas Lancret , Jean-Étienne Liotard , Jacques-André Portail, François Boucher —to call but just a few such artists—achieved delicate drawings that are very appealing coloristically. This modelling wash has been used repeatedly because the sixteenth century, typically together with charcoal, chalk, or pencil drawings.

Thus, the empty surface, suggesting by itself a spatial background to the drawing on it, contributes actively to the inventive impact. Among the details conveyed by the empty area will be the planes of a face, the smooth width of a garment, the mass of a figure or object, the substance the borders and nuances of which are indicated by the drawing.

Another crucial drawing pencil is equally a chalk product: the crimson pencil, or sanguine , which comprises ferric oxide, which occurs in nature in shadings from dark brown to sturdy red and can be manufactured from the same aluminum-oxide base with ferric oxide or rust added.

For perspectively appropriate rendition, the graticulate body, marked off in squares to facilitate proportionate enlargement or discount, allowed the article to be drawn to be viewed consistent with a screen on the drawing surface. There’s also the potential for more books that explore other specific drawing methods.