I finally got brave and broke out the good paper.

This is Prismacolor pencil on Sekishu Natural 24x39" handmade Japanese paper. It has a lovely ethereal quality that I gravitate towards in my work. (What I really love about this paper:  When using Prismacolor pencils-It feels an awful lot like coloring in a coloring book!)  I never thought I would be able to work abstractly, as I've always been most interested in drawing the figure, specifically the female figure. I've found that using color, layers, and mark-making has given me the opportunity to create a mood and atmosphere without always feeling it is necessary to incorporate a figure.

I think I may be about %25-%50? through at this point.

This is the most densely-worked part of this drawing so far.  I still need to go further to obscure that teardrop-like form in there.  Eventually, I also need to work this level of density throughout the drawing.

This is where the drawing began, up there with those blue curved marks.  I have a little box full of these types of marks that I've been using in my drawings lately.  It's a strange thing...it's like doodles come to life in a specific way.  Although I never intended for them to look like clouds.  I just try to let the marks become what they want to become.  The margins in my high school notebooks never looked quite like this.  Maybe a fine arts degree has been worthwhile!  

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I try to balance the heavy and dense with the light and airy.

I think this paper is really perfect for what I've been doing with my drawings lately!  I'm so happy with it.

That little propeller-type mark began as an infinity symbol in earlier drawings.  I wanted it to look like an insect.  

Here are two more drawings that I've been working on using different papers.  Overworking an abstract drawing is a problem for me.  I am very new and inexperienced at this.  I thought, well, maybe I should try my marks big, since I've got a big piece of paper in front of me.  It didn't really work out how I wanted it to.

I might be able to save this one.  I will either have to go even crazier with it by covering more of the light areas with more marks, color, and layers, or I'll have to cut it up and make something new.

An example of an area I really like in the drawing.  This is also Prismacolor pencil, but the paper is 22x33.5" Mulberry.

Layering by literally using layers of paper-at the moment there are two layers of glassine, an interleaving acid-free paper usually used when storing drawings. 

The transparency of working on this is appealing to me, but I'm not sure about the shiny, slippery quality of the surface.  It has a different feel.  I still have a long way to go with this drawing.  It needs to be dense.  I want to create a more distinct form with this one.  We'll see what happens.