Drawing in the Dark contest entry: Nighthawk Profile

I was suffering from insomnia from the night before as it was getting late. My eyes were dry and heavy but I wanted to get this challenge done. The more art the better am I right? I got to it, turned the lights off and put something like Kybele on Soundcloud. Just when I had begun, I got annoyed by the spiral binding of my sketchbook so I picked a better paper. I wanted to feel the grain of the paper underneath my art stix (prismacolor) as they slide from their oily belly across the surface at great speeds. When the eyes are not working, a whole sensorial experience opens up. You are not distracted by the will to draw the "right" way and you can set your medium free as it layers on.

For the first one I picked the colors at random meaning I could not see what color I was choosing. That had a profound impact on the process. Come to think of it the black could have been conte, maybe subconsciously I knew it was darker just by the way my paper was reacting to it. It was compelling me to create these deliberate, almost obsessive straight angles. Of course the music was a big source of inspiration.
My eyes were closed but it would not have made a difference, the room was pitch black. I call it: La Petite Mort

I wanted my second drawing to be cohesive somehow so I kept the art stix which were already out of the box to draw from them at random. This would ensure a consistant colour palette. I started softly layering with the side of the stix, feeling the surface, exploring the tactile back and forth. Almost like developping my own intimate language with the paper. Gradually there came to be those tight wiggles with the edge of my colours. I felt like drawing a masculine profile with a pronounced sharp nose. And again a second time, inspired by my time doing blind contour.
I loved it when I turned on the light, I felt compelled to accentuate the red and green lines in order to harmonize the double nature of the portrait. This one is calle: Nighthawk Profile