Sanguine () or red chalk is
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
of a reddish-brown color, so called because it resembles the color of dried
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells.
Blood is com ...
. It has been popular for centuries for
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
. The word comes via French from the Italian ''sanguigna'' and originally from the Latin "sanguis".
Technique
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. As with pastel, a mid-toned paper may be put to good use. A fixative may be applied to preserve the finished state of the drawing. The pigment used in sanguine sticks comes from red earths such as
red ochre
Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the col ...
.
Chalk drawing
. www.britannica.com. Retrieved August 20, 2016. Sanguines are also available in several other tones such as orange, tan, brown, beige.
Gallery
File:Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, c. 1637, NGA 9844.jpg, Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the h ...
, Self-Portrait, . National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
, Washington, D.C.
File:L'Image et le Pouvoir - Etude d'après un buste romain.jpg, French sanguine drawing; relatively unusual in fully coloring the background
Image:Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_presumed_self-portrait_-_WGA12798.jpg, Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
self-portrait in sanguine
File:Dessin_homme_à_la_sanguine_école_italienne_18ème_siècle.jpg, Italian sanguine drawing of a male nude, 18th century
See also
* Conté
Conté (; ), also called the Conté stick or Conté crayon, is a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. It was invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who crea ...
* Trois crayons
''Trois crayons'' (; ) is a drawing technique using three colors of chalk: red (sanguine), black (a type of oil shale), and white. The paper used may be a mid-tone such as grey, blue, or tan. Among numerous others, French painters Antoine Watteau ...
References
Red chalk: material, history and application in art, J.den HollanderRed chalk: map of historic mining sites with references to sources, J.den Hollander, B.Reissland, N.Wichern, I.Joosten (2019)
Drawing
Visual arts materials
Shades of red
Shades of brown
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