There are lots more pages about Conte Crayons on this site. Click here or scroll down to page list near bottom of this page (and it is on all of the pages, either at the top or near the bottom).
Actually, I don't know all the answers to this, though there are some basic suggestions below. If you have more suggestions, I will be glad to add them here. Here is a fact: Conte crayons can make a mess. In fact, they do, always, make a mess when I use them. If you can draw with Conte crayons without getting your fingers, your clothes, and everything nearby dusted with particles of colors from the crayons, then perhaps you have a vacuum cleaner going at all times, or else you're just a lot neater than I am. Actually, you probably are neater than I am, as I'm not the kind who wears a surgical gown and works like a lab technician.
SOME THINGS I MYSELF DO
Here are some things I do about this problem:
WEAR OLD CLOTHES
- I wear old clothes that I'll never wear away from the house. It would be very intimidating to have to draw with Conte crayons while wearing "good" clothing; I might as well just draw on my clothes and get it over with, because it would only be a matter of minutes before I ruined them anyway -- and then I could relax.
USE A LIQUID SOAP DISPENSER - AND A WORN-OUT TOWEL
- I have a large dispenser of liquid soap by the sink. It's the kind that you press down on the top of, and it squirts out the soap onto your hands. I wash my hands several times while I'm working on a drawing, even if it's only for half an hour, as I wash them every time I pick up a different color. I also have an old, worn out towel I use for drying my hands, as drying your hands so often can ruin a good towel in a hurry (it also ruins hands, but that's another subject). I get plenty of exercise while working on a picture, as I'm always going into the other room to wash my hands.
BLOW OFF EXCESS CONTE PARTICLES OUTSIDE
- This is probably unnecessary to say, but when I blow off the surface of the picture (when the Conte crayon is getting thick), I do it outside the house where the particles won't settle onto anything that needs to stay clean.
SUGGESTIONS FROM OTHERS
PUT A CANVAS "RUG" UNDER YOUR EASEL WHILE YOU'RE DRAWING
- Here's a suggestion from a visitor to these pages:
....."Invest in a big piece of loose canvas. You can buy it by the yard, off the role, at a lot of art stores. You can lay it down like a rug under your easel. You could use a sheet or blanket for this too. I like the canvas because, it's thick and keeps particles from working through it's fibers. It is heavy enough not to flip up and knock the dust onto the carpet if you have a fan going/cats playing/clumsy feet/etc. It is also thin enough that it doesn't tend to bulge up into a tripping hazard like a blanket can. Sheets are great for protecting book shelves though, from the inevitable loose particles that accumulate on their surfaces. (I've usually had to work in a corner of my living room or some other, functional, living space with furniture in it). All of these can be folded up afterwards to contain the dust, taken outside and shaken out between uses."
Follow this link to the Art Academy site where they have an article on this subject. The article is called "From Hell to High Water: How to correct your Conte portrait drawing when things go awry."
There are five pages in the lesson, with plenty of illustrations. At first you may think there's only one page. You have to scroll down past the ads at the bottom of the page to get to the "Next page" link.
Here is what I do: The picture is placed right-side up on cardboard, which is cut to the same size as the picture, then the picture is covered with waxed paper which is taped to the back of the cardboard; then another piece of cardboard is put on top and the top and bottom pieces of cardboard are taped together, with the picture(s) sandwiched between; then all this is put into either a large padded envelope or a box to send (if you have more than one picture, they do not need to have cardboard between them as long as each is covered with waxed paper and there is cardboard under the stack of them as well as on top of the stack). You can use a simple box of the type you mail clothing in, and put foam "peanuts" under the cardboard, to the sides, and on top of the cardboard that covers the top picture.
GLASSINE - BUT NOT PLASTIC WRAP
I understand that you can use glassine (a kind of paper that I have yet to see other than in pictures) instead of the waxed paper, but the waxed paper is easy to find in a grocery store, and glassine is not. One thing you can't use, though, is "clingy" plastic wrap -- That will pull the particles right off of the picture.
SAVE BACKS OF TABLETS, ETC.
I save cardboard pieces, such as backs of tablets, or I even cut cardboard off of boxes. There is waxed paper in the house and it's used for mailing (even though not for storing pictures, just because of the cost -- Waxed paper isn't very expensive, but I draw a lot of pictures, so the cost adds up).
If you have any tips, or even have some experiences that tell you what's a really bad idea to try, please let me know, and I'll add them to the part of this page where they fit in. I could use all the tips and thoughts you have about it, and I'm sure others will be interested, too. Let me know - You can write to me at
Let me know if I can use your name (or initials) when I add your comments here. - Jean
