Drawing Surfaces: Opalux Vellum and Dura-Lar

Test: 5 layers of Opalex Vellum paper.

I’m starting to get more clarification on the format and procedure for these crayon drawings. I tried out the Opalux Vellum paper, which had a nice tooth for getting the crayon to adhere, but as a surface seemed too clean for my purposes.

I tried matte Dura-Lar, but the look of the drawings was too sterile and the crayon glided across the surface, creating essentially no inherent texture in the crayon. I might try sanding it to see if there’s any difference. However, I do think both of these materials will be good sketching papers to help me plan out the final compositions.

Test: 5 layers of Dura-Lar matte

I’ve also been thinking about exactly how to organize the individual layers, since the drawings will be intended to be viewed from both the front and back. If you number the layers as #1-#6, layers #1 and #6 will have their sanded sides facing outwards and feature the darkest, closest figures in the most shallow water. Layers #2 and #5 will have slightly smaller figures that are in deeper waters, with layers #3 and #4 having the smallest, furthest, least defined figures of all, in the deepest water. The idea is for me to invest a lot of articulation and detail into layers #1 and #6 whereas the other layers will feature less detail since they’ll be buried behind other sheets of Dura-Lar. I’ll begin the drawing with layers #3 and #4, and then build outwards from there.

ART PROF is a free, online educational platform for visual arts for people of all ages and means. artprof.org features video courses, art critiques, an encyclopedia of art supplies, and more.