In this life drawing session I enjoyed experimenting with drawing on pre prepared gel plate printed backgrounds with conte crayon. I incorporated bird imagery into the gel plate prints to link to some of my personal projects this year that feature birds and vessels. Ellie- conte crayon on gel plate print 2x5 minute poses Ten …
Continue reading Life drawing- Ellie on mixed media backgrounds
In this life drawing session I experimented with a looser, more gestural style of drawing using compressed charcoal. I enjoyed letting go of perfectionism and creating more messy, expressive work. This style of drawing really lends itself to quick 1-5 minute poses- it forced me to focus on the movement of the figure to create …
Continue reading Gestural life drawings in compressed charcoal
Aimee- negative space In my sketchbook I have been enjoying reworking old and new life drawings into new compositions using collage and mixed media techniques. I used old paintings that I no longer liked or needed and cut them up to create new pieces in my sketchbook using them as backgrounds or parts of the …
Continue reading Life drawing mixed media sketchbook: playing with figures
Natasha 20mins 4x 5 minutes poses 15 minutes 20 minutes 10 minute pose For this life drawing session I concentrated on drawing with a sanguine conte crayon. Sanguine has been used throughout history to draw the human body. Artists such as Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo and Raphael used it to create detailed anatomical drawings. Rembrandt also …
Continue reading Life drawings: sanguine drawings of Natasha
Gil- sad fairy Sketch book collage composition I had a great time drawing the model Gil in a recent life drawing session at Whalley Life drawing group. In this session I enjoyed exploring different mediums including collage, graphite pencil, soft pastels, charcoal and conte crayons. I had pre- prepared a collaged background made from hand …
Continue reading Life drawing- and the start of a mixed media sketchbook
A collection of recent life drawings in pastel and conte crayon by Rachel Crawshaw
A collection of life drawings of model Sophie in conte crayon and charcoal on sugar paper. Gestural figurative drawings and portraits by artist Rachel Crawshaw from @mushroommoondesigns
Here is a selection of my recent life drawings! Recently I have enjoyed practicing drawing faces and trying to get a likeness from life rather than from reference photographs. This is pretty challenging and has various degrees of success! But I am enjoying the process. I have also experimented with using Conte Crayons, a medium …
A collection of life drawings from Rachel Crawshaw at mushroommoondesigns.com
A collection of Rachel Crawshaw’s life drawing sketches from January 2026 in pencil, colour pencil, watercolour pencil and ink
Mushroom Moon Designs 