Drawing Techniques: a Guide | |
Dry Media: Red Chalk | |
Natural
red chalk, often in the past called by the French term sanguine,
is hematite, or iron oxide suspended in clay. Like black chalk it acquired
popularity in the late fifteenth century and waned towards the end of the
eighteenth. Leonardo da Vinci has been considered its first great master.
Its rich red-ochre color gave it a natural preeminence for the depiction
of surface contours. It became the favorite medium for nude studies in the
Florentine and Bolognese academies.
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Giovanni Battista Naldini. Mercury and Aglauros. Horvitz Collection, Massachusetts. | |
Black Chalk |