In this challenge battle, I put four artists on the clock for 40 minutes to recreate a skull reference by doing the opposite of what you’d expect: we start with a page covered in charcoal powder, and you can ONLY draw by erasing it away. You get 30 minutes of pure erasing to carve out the skull, then a final 10-minute “Conte down” where you’re allowed to add back in with a Conte crayon to tighten values and pull the whole thing together. Of course there’s a catch—everyone has to use a different eraser: a spinning electric eraser, a kneaded eraser, a classic pink eraser, and the butt end of a Ticonderoga pencil. I picked the pencil eraser because it’s tried-and-true for me, and it does one thing insanely well: tiny, specific, bright highlights. But it also kind of shoots you in the foot on big value shapes and midtones, which is where this challenge gets brutal. Watching everyone wrestle their tool was the whole point—electric eraser has power but fights your control, kneaded eraser sounds smart until you can’t find that hard edge, and the pink eraser is workable but surprisingly tricky. The big takeaway: erasing forces you to think in values first, and that last Conte pass can be a total lifesaver if you leave room for it.