Drawing exercises of exercises. Both are 11 x 14″ in pencil.

I hesitate to say it’s finished, but here’s where I’m stopping, at least for now. I’m tired of fighting this Yupo film surface. It’s worth going back to, but I’ll need to let her sit awhile longer.

Although I’ve made drawings on Yupo film before they were line drawings and not this carefully shaded. This is proving to be a bit more challenging than I expected. It’s difficult to get softly blended tones with graphite. All of this has been drawn with a 5H lead. Well, I’ll continue to plow through and see how it turns out.

I’m showing it at this early stage mostly unfinished to give a representation of the process I’ve used. The bottom right side shows how I made first one row of lines that were then doubled in another pass. I then went back over it once again to add some more shading. I’ll likely refine it more to make it smoother after I get the figure drawn in. The first pass of lines helped keep the shading even and straight, which was the look I envisioned.

I’ve discussed the Yupo product before as a painting surface, and now would like to show some test results I’ve made to use it for drawings. Yupo is a synthetic “paper” sheet that is 100% polypropylene. If you’ve ever used frosted (matte) drafting film then you’ll find this has an identical feel. In fact, it comes in a translucent form like traditional drafting film, but also in an opaque white surface that looks more like regular paper. It’s available in various sizes and weights, from 50# up to 144#. The weight I used for this demonstration is 74#. Yupo is available in pads or single sheets. I’ve also seen the opaque option in large rolls 5ft high x 10 yards long. It performs well as a drawing surface in most situations, but it does have a few disadvantages.

Inks:
Various inks perform differently on this surface. Due to the lack of absorption into this material, all inks take longer to dry than they would on regular paper. As such you should use special care not to touch the inked areas for quite awhile after making any marks. Sumi-e ink beads up just like watercolor paint does. That’s not necessarily bad, just an effect to be aware of. Once it dries, sumi-e actually adheres to it rather well. Acrylic ink, such as the FW or Liquitex brand, adheres the best and will not easily scrape away with a knife blade or smear. If you thin it with water then they bead up like sumi-e. Shellac inks adhere almost as well, but can scrape away somewhat.

Ink markers give mixed results; although, they all draw rather well. The Prismacolor layout markers performed the best. Because of the slow drying rate colors were easy to blend into each other, which can be good or bad depending on what you’re expecting. Once it dries you can go back over them in tinted layers as you would on regular paper, but it makes for a slower process. One big problem with all the other markers I tested is that even a day later after the ink dried I was able to smear the marks very easily. The ink just sits on the surface and doesn’t grab hold to the surface that well. That won’t be a terrible condition as long as the final work is protected behind glass or Plexiglas, and just be careful when handling it. Markers with hard tips also dig into the ink as you make the mark, shoveling it to the side. You may find you get better results with soft felt tips or brush pens. Flexible steel nibs on dip pens, by the way, don’t have that problem depending on how flexible they are.

Dry media:
Soft powdery materials like charcoal or soft pastels do not work very well on Yupo. The marks just slide around and cannot build up a decent dark value; although, they will tone the surface to some degree.

This surface likes graphite pencils. The more graphite content the tool has the better it performs. The feel under the tool is very smooth. Dark HB leads, the Sanford Ebony, or Derwent Onyx pencils glide across the surface nicely; although, it’s hard to tell much difference between them. Even the hard H leads draw well; in fact, they tend to leave a darker mark here than they would on regular paper, so if you use a 5H for light lines you may need a softer touch or harder lead. Pencils that have a high charcoal content like the Wolff brand cannot get up to a very dark shade, but curiously the Derwent Pastel pencil did a better job if not as dark as it would be on paper.

The one problem with graphite on Yupo is it won’t erase well. Erasing first causes the marks to smear before erasing no matter which type of eraser I tried. An electric eraser might remove marks better but would also smear. If your drawing method involves erasing, such as to lighten marks or removing lines, this surface will disappoint you.

Of the other mediums I tested, wax pencils performed well on this material. Prismacolors went down very smoothly and could build up a nice dark shade. Some wax crayons, like the Neocolor brand, did well but cheap Crayola crayons did not do quite as well. None of the watercolor pencils I tried would draw well at all. The Derwent Aqua-Tone pencils were almost acceptable but could not build up a dark value. The oil based Walnut Hollow brand pencils drew very well, but the Faber Castell Polychromos brand did not. China “grease” pencils drew well as did litho crayons. Oil pastels drew very well on Yupo.

Conclusion:
The main benefit to Yupo that appeals to me is being available in large sizes. A 5 foot drawing surface is a nice option to have, or even the 24 x 40 inch sheets that are larger than what you can easily find for regular paper stock. Bear in mind that while this surface won’t tear, it can be cut, and also easily creased. You also don’t want any oily fingerprints on the surface so it’s a good idea to wash it first before drawing on it and avoid touching the surface.

The drawing media you choose, among those I mentioned above, will give you good results in most cases with a few considerations to watch out for.

Here’s the final version of the “Putti Victorious” ink drawing. I’ve made a scan of it this time to show it off a little bit better. I’ll spend some time now examining it carefully for clean up spots and any minor tweaks that may be necessary.

Here’s a 2nd update to show on the new drawing with the torso and left leg done. I’ll tackle the head next; always the most challenging part.

I have part of the figure to show here in the “Putti Victorious” ink drawing. This should give you an idea of what I’m trying to achieve. Click the thumbnail for a larger view.

One benefit to drawing in ink on a shellac primed surface is it allows me to fairly easily scratch away areas of ink. I spoke about this before in how to make your own scratchboard. It also helps me tidy up some of the lines. An example of this effect is the feathers that I scratched in behind the hand. I wanted the make it a bit more obvious that he had wings.

I’ve finished covering the background in the new drawing. I’ll wait until the figure is completed before deciding if the background needs any adjustment. I rather like the texture so I’m not in a hurry to change it.

Enough with the holiday laziness. I’ve started a new ink drawing, humorously playing with a baby angel idea (blame the left-over Christmas spirit, if you will.) This comes from a bronze sculpture by the Belgian artist Francois Dequesnoy, according to my notes. The sword will be my own addition.

The drawing surface is a 12 x 24″ thin sheet of birch veneer coated with a hand-made shellac primer. I’ll need to go back and adjust the background value at some point to get a better gradient, but for now I just need to get it covered evenly. You can see here the stages of cross-hatched layers I’ve built up so far. I’m using India ink (Pelikan) and a Hunt #512 pen nib.