Busacca Gallery

This is an antique work on paper of a beautiful red chalk sanguine drawing sketch head, of a woman. This came from a group of European drawings and pencil sketches. This is red chalk on brown cream paper. Private collection. This private online exhibition is the first devoted exclusively to these drawings. These are remarkable European Eighteenth nineteen Century sketches from a great draftsman. There have been countless exhibitions that have presented the works of other great European artists, While most sketches have long ago entered public collections, these drawings are actively sought today by collectors both public and private when seen in today's market. This sketch is Unframed! Sanguine or red chalk is chalk of a reddish-brown color, so-called because it resembles the color of dried blood. It has been popular for centuries for drawing (where white chalk only works on colored paper). The word comes via French from the Italian sanguigna and originally from the Latin "sanguis". Sanguine lends itself naturally to sketches, life drawings, and rustic scenes. It is ideal for rendering modeling and volume, and human flesh. In the form of wood-cased pencils and manufactured sticks, sanguine may be used similarly to charcoal and pastel.

Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. The chemical composition of chalk is calcium carbonate, with minor amounts of silt and clay. It is formed in the sea by sub-microscopic plankton, which falls to the seafloor and is then consolidated and compressed during diagenesis into chalk rock. Most people first encounter chalk in school where it refers to blackboard chalk. Colored chalks, pastel chalks, and sidewalk chalk (shaped into larger sticks and often colored) used to draw on sidewalks, streets, and driveways, are primarily made of gypsum.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil_Drawing

Dry media such as pencil or pastel are often preferred due to time constraints, but a quickly done watercolor study or even quickly modeled clay or soft wax can also be considered a 'sketch' in the broader sense of the term. Graphite pencils being a relatively new invention, the artists of the Renaissance could make sketches using the expensive method of a silver stylus on specially prepared paper (known as silverpoint), with results similar to a modern pencil sketch, or, more cheaply, using charcoal, chalk, or pen-and-ink. A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work. If in oil paint it is called an oil sketch. In general, a sketch is a quick way to record an idea for later use. Artist's sketches primarily serve as a way to try out different ideas and establish a composition before undertaking a more finished work, especially when the finished work is expensive and time consuming (as in the case of a large painting or fresco). Sketching sharpens an artist's ability to focus on the most important elements of a subject and is a prescribed part of artistic development for students. Contrary to popular belief, artists often use erasers when drawing; the eraser may be used to remove rough construction lines, or to soften lines for visual effect. The most commonly used eraser for pencil drawing is the kneaded eraser, which has a soft, sticky surface that enables the artist to lift the graphite or charcoal from the drawing surface without smudging. White plastic erasers can cleanly erase line work, but tend to smudge heavy shading. The sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci and Edgar Degas are two examples of many done by famous artists which have become art objects in their own right, although many pages show more thoughtful studies rather than true sketches. The ability to quickly record impressions through sketching has found varied purposes in today's culture. Courtroom artists are usually sketchers. Sketches drawn to help authorities find or identify wanted people are called composite sketches. Street performers in popular tourist areas often include artists who sketch portraits within minutes.