Creative Design: A Smooth Operation — Draft

Remy Rotenier cabochon sketching image

A Smooth Operation

A step-by-step guide to drawing cabochons

By Rémy Rotenier  A cabochon is a gemstone that, instead of being faceted, has a smooth convex top and usually a flat or slightly domed bottom. It’s the oldest gemstone cut, and what I particularly like about cabochons is that they are very soft to the eye as well as to the touch. They’re also much easier to draw than faceted stones because those facets act like a kaleidoscope and complicate things. For this exercise you will need a 0.5 mm mechanical pencil with HB lead, a thin eraser (my favorite is the 2.3 mm Mono Tombow), a paper stump for blending, and some white copy paper. [[slideshow id=379]]