A Sense of Vitality

Aura Skugariene uses a hatching technique to create her colored pencil portraits

- Aura Skugariene

A long time ago I was introduced to the with graphite pencil and charcoal. When a certain situation arose, I used the same technique to draw with colored pencils. My biggest passion is to draw portraits, especially the elderly. I want to show personality in the subject. I try to take a picture so that the face is illuminated on one side and the other side is in shadow. Contact and intertwining of light and shadow enriches the drawing, bringing forth more emotion.

Before starting a new drawing project, I think about which color paper to use. The color should help in the workflow to get the final result and helps speed up the drawing process. I usually use Canson Mi-Teintes toned paper. In the end, I don't necessarily fill the whole sheet of paper with the same intensity because the paper works itself to achieve the completeness of the drawing. I like the roughness of this paper. Its hardness allows me to extract more specific, sharper lines.