By 1881 Seurat had developed a mature, original and entirely characteristic drawing style. It was not until several years later that he achieved a comparable mastery in his easel painting. Exploiting the rich tone of Conté crayon, which was easier to handle than charcoal, he could produce the desired degree of darkness simply by applying pressure as he drew, and by quickly building up the density of line. The tone in these drawings "modulates from the deepest, most velvety blacks right through to the natural white on the paper; no longer are we conscious of individual pencil strokes, but merely of the process of uninterrupted becoming" (J. Russell, Seurat, New York, 1965, pp. 80 and 83). While other artists at that time were producing drawings in which imagery was described by means of silhouette and sfumato--Fantin-Latour and Redon, for example--Seurat is unique among them in his faithfulness to naturalism and the significance he gives to drawing as a process in itself, in which he goes beyond mere description to represent the resonance, harmony and timelessness of the natural world.