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| CHARCOAL | Charcoal has been used for drawing since prehistoric times: using soot and sticks of charred wood from the fire as drawing tools, early cavemen covered the walls of their caves with images of the animals they hunted. Since then, charcoal has never lost its popularity. |
A user-friendly medium
Charcoal is an excellent medium for beginners, as it encourages the student to treat subjects in broad terms and not become lost in detail. At the same time it is a forgiving medium, which is very easy to erase and correct by rubbing marks off with a finger or a wad of tissue.
Charcoal sticks
Stick charcoal is made from vine, beech or willow twigs charred at high temperatures in airtight kilns. Willow is the commonest type; vine and beech charcoal are more expensive, but make a richer mark. Lengths up to 15cm (6in) are available in boxes, and vary in thicknesses and degrees of hardness. Soft charcoal is more powdery and adheres less easily to the paper than hard charcoal, so it is better suited to blending and smudging techniques and creating broad tonal areas. The harder type of charcoal is more appropriate for detailed, linear work, as it does not smudge so readily. The only drawback with stick charcoal is that it is very brittle and fragile, and tends to snap when used vigorously.
Compressed charcoal
Vine, beech and willow charcoal
This is made out of powder ground from charcoal, mixed with a binder and pressed into short, thick sticks. Compressed charcoal is stronger than stick charcoal and does not break so easily. It produces dense, velvety blacks, but is less easy to dust off than natural charcoal.
Charcoal pencils
These pencils are made from thin sticks of compressed charcoal encased in wood. They are cleaner to handle and easier to control than stick charcoal, and have a slightly harder texture. Only the point can be used, so they cannot produce a broad side-stroke, but they make firm lines and strokes. Charcoal pencils come in hard, medium and soft grades; the tip can be sharpened, like graphite pencils.
Versatility
Charcoal is a wonderfully liberating medium, so immediate and responsive in use that it is almost like an extension of the artist’s fingers. Simply by twisting and varying the pressure on the stick, you can make fluid lines that vary from soft and tentative to bold and vigorous. Rich tonal effects, ranging from deep blacks to misty greys, are achieved by smudging and blending charcoal lines with the fingers or with a paper stump, and highlights can be picked out with a kneaded-putty eraser.
Detailed work
Easily sharpened, pencils are perhaps the best form of charcoal for doing detailed drawing.
Working at a distance
Charcoal works well for large-scale drawings executed at the easel. You need to stand well back from the easel, so that your drawing arm is not cramped and you can view the drawing as a whole through each stage of progress.
Attaching charcoal to a cane
Working at a distance is made easier by securing the charcoal stick to the end of a cane – a method used by Renaissance painters when drawing images for frescoes. Cut a piece of cane to the required length. At one end of the cane make two 25mm (1 in) cuts at right angles. Push the charcoal firmly into the end, leaving a reasonable length protruding, and then secure with tape wound round the cane.
Tonal effects
The most effective method of achieving these is by smudging and blending charcoal lines with fingers or with a paper stump.
Rosemary Young
Reclining Nude
Charcoal on paper
35 × 45cm (14 × 18in)
Charcoal is a painterly medium, allowing a rich patina of marks to be built up with line and tone. Both of these artists’ drawings evolve gradually, the final image being enriched by the previous alterations. Rosemary Young works at an easel, using charcoal attached to a length of cane to allow her greater mobility.
Highlights
These can be picked out with a kneaded putty eraser.
Exploiting the grain of the paper
One of the most interesting of charcoal’s characteristics is that it is sympathetic to the texture and grain of the paper, allowing it to show through and contribute to the surface interest of the drawing. This is especially the case when the charcoal stick is used on its side and swept lightly over the surface.
Fixing charcoal
Sarah Cawkwell
Hair Piece
Charcoal on paper
147.5 × 118.7cm (59 × 47½in)
The soft nature of charcoal makes it messy to handle, and the strokes may be accidentally smeared with the heel of the hand. Keep a damp rag handy, and wipe your fingertips regularly to avoid leaving prints on the paper. It is advisable to spray finished charcoal drawings fairly liberally with fixative to protect them from smudging.
SEE ALSO
| PASTELS | Pastels are made from finely ground pigments mixed with a base such as chalk or clay and bound together with gum to form a stiff paste. This is then cut and shaped into sticks and allowed to harden. There are four types of pastel available: soft and hard pastels, pastel pencils and oil pastels. They are available in different shapes – round or square, thin or chunky. |
Tints and shades
Pastels are made in a wide range of tints and shades, derived from a selection of full-strength pigment colours. The tints are achieved by adding more base and white pigment to the original colour, and by repeating this process to produce a series of increasingly lighter shades.
The tonal range of each pastel colour is usually indicated by a system of numbering which corresponds to the various strengths of each colour; for example, in some ranges burnt umber has No. 1 against its lightest shade,