Although he had no formal training few 20th century British artists rivaled his technical excellence – in this respect he might be compared to Augustus John and William Orpen. Brangwyn obviously enjoyed the process of sketching, hence the volume of work, sometimes drawing the same subject time and again with only small variations, and would return to particular images for inspiration years later, making dating of completed works somewhat difficult. His figure studies and images of plants and animals, carried out in soft pencil, chalk, pastel or mixed media, display a confidence of line which rarely required change.