Linda, thanks and I'm glad you like this drawing. Believe me, I'm no expert with conte (you should talk to Marina!). I've dabbled with it here and there in life drawing classes, but this is my first somewhat finished drawing with it. What inspired me to do this one was Susan Lyons' beautiful conte portraits that were on display at last year's PSA conference - I'm guessing you saw them there...they can also be seen on her and Scott's website. She had mentioned that she used Rives BFK paper and loved it. I know this paper well from my printmaking days - and I've got to say, it is a very beautiful surface to draw on with conte.
I used a Cretacolor conte pencil which I sharpened often, and that's it. I didn't want to use a conte stick in conjuction as it would add a whole other quality and/or color. I found that in laying down light tones and going over it with a blending stump gave me some very beautiful passages - these lighter tones just glow on this paper. Going darker is a bit problematic. I'm so used to charcoal which gives...black. The darkest that conte will go is not that dark. And even then I was pretty sure I didn't want to go completely saturated with the conte. I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. So I guess you have to decide what value is going to represent your darkest darks - and then be careful not to go darker anywhere else.
Just my two cents' worth.
