Conservator Abby Schleicher will highlight drawing materials and techniques seen in works in the special exhibition Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black. She will describe how the physical evidence left by artists’ hands—on paper and media, and through mark-making—can deepen our understanding of these works.

Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black celebrates the act of drawing using familiar tools—charcoal, chalk, crayon, and graphite. Each type of material has distinctive properties: charcoal can be intensely rich and velvety, or delicately gray and suggestive, while graphite is slippery, shiny, and easy to erase. Crayon is deeply black and waxy, whereas chalk can be crumbly and diffuse. The creative manipulations of these media—smudging, scraping, and erasing—make them versatile tools for adding intensity, depth, precision, and expression to an artist’s vision.