My preferred media so far is dry, i.e. charcoal, pencil and pastel. I love the sound of it, when it scathes the paper. The dust flailing up high in the air, the organic marks it leaves on the paper and the ease of blending and erasing.
Drawing achromatically, might seem very restricting regarding choice of colours. I find it very liberating, as it is not only black and white but innumerable shades of grey. The reason why I prefer drawing “white on black” is the ease one can start one’s work. White paper stares at you in a rather threatening manner. It is hard to start “spoiling” a pure white. One wrongly drawn line or any mark on the paper seems to have “ruined” the paper’s innocence as the base of a future art work.
Black paper on the other hand invites you more to eagerly begin; it does seem to speak to you, that whatever you do you make it more beautiful. Every mark on the black darkness will – literally – brighten it up.
Highlights will be drawn with the whitest of the white and shadows will be erased and later filled in with black.