Bear Trap Ranch

Bear Trap Ranch cook house - 5/31/25

This drawing took me the better part of the month of July, usually working 2-4 hours /day for 5-6 days stretch at a time. There was a period where I was at it continually for nearly 3 weeks.

Instead of using my typical HB mechanical pencils ( between 5mm and 9mm) for an entire drawing, I tried this time to create depth and distance by using harder (and hence lighter tone) pencils for the background, and gradually using softer pencils (and hence darker tone) as I moved to the foreground.

I used a range of 2H all the way to 6B as I moved from back to front. I would then layer on workable fixative as I completed each section. Once I had the background mountain range done, I completed the sky and covered it all with permanent fixative. I wanted to able to protect the tone of the sky and the background details from the inevitable smearing of details that occurs as you move your hand over a pencil drawing, as well as from the overshading of gray from the fine graphite that spreads everywhere.

Keeping my drawing gloves on, working very carefully (intentionally from top to bottom) continuingly cleaning the drawing board after each day, periodically layering on workable fixative and erasing the borders often - all helped me to preserve the detail I was putting into the drawing.

It is easily the most complicated drawing I have done to date. I hope you enjoy.