This week I’m moving along with these crayon sketches drawn on tracing paper over sheets of sanded Dura-Lar. A large part of my drawing approach is about the interaction of the crayon with this textured surface, and this sketch tchnique is working really well to simulate the final drawing surface. I think about these sketches more as “rubbings” than as anything else.
I’ve been trying to take this idea of transparency and seeing “through” the figure a few steps further during my drawing sessions today; with the more complex poses this approach has been very useful. It’s also helped for me to do some simple and quick line-based gesture drawings to emphasize the transparency of the figure before moving onto more sustained, tonal drawings. After a few tough drawing sessions last week, things are finally starting to fall into place.
I did start some more sustained drawings, although I’m still keeping them fairly short at around 20 minutes each. It’s interesting that no matter how many times I sit down to draw I always have a need to set “rules” for the day. Today’s rules are: start light, build gradually, resist lines, draw through the figure, and save the black. None of these are new ideas, but they help me stay on course in terms of what I’m trying to achieve.
Clara Lieu 
lovely