What is charcoal?
Simply put, charcoal is a dark carbon substance made from burning wood. Although certain woods are favoured for making artists’ charcoal, it’s not much different from the coals you may find in your fireplace.
Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing materials in human history and can be seen in cave drawings dating back hundreds of years. In art history, charcoal was first used by artists only to make proprietary sketches as there was no real way to prevent the medium from smudging. It was only later in the 20th century when artists discovered that they could preserve charcoal drawings by coating them, usually with gum, to fix the image.
How to use when drawing:
Today charcoal still forms part of many artists’ toolkits and is much more sophisticated than just burnt wood. With commercially available spray fixatives and other tools, charcoal is one of the most affordable and popular choices for creating large scale drawings.
Charcoal is a wonderful medium to use for drawing as it allows one to work in a wide range of tones and create various textures and effects.
The pigment is so soft and easily spread, you can effortlessly blend and smudge charcoal with a paper stump or your finger. Create beautiful shaded marks and achieve very subtle tones with just a couple of strokes. This works well for a more painterly approach to your mark making.
To create harder lines, use the edge of a charcoal stick. The sharper the edge, the harder your lines will be. This is particularly good for more geometric line work and lends itself to a more graphic way of mark making.
Use erasers to lift colour and create textures and highlights. Putty or kneadable erasers are especially useful in this instance. The soft pigment lifts very easily, especially when using pure charcoal without any binders.
It can also be turned into a dust/powder using a sharp blade which can then be used for finger drawing, brushing on and creating softer shades than using the charcoal in stick form.
Different types
The two most conventional types of charcoal are Willow and Compressed charcoal.
Willow or Vine charcoal usually comes in long sticks which vary in thickness – thin, medium, thick and chunky. It is made through a process of burning wood sticks – usually from a willow or vine tree. Willow is much softer, lighter and more brittle than compressed charcoal. It is easy to erase and to shade but it is not as dark as compressed charcoal.
Compressed or Pitt charcoal, is charcoal powder mixed with a binder of gum, wax or oil. Through compressing this binded compound they are shaped into square or rounded sticks. Depending on the amount of binder used, the pitt charcoal sticks can come in soft, medium and hard.
This type of charcoal is less brittle and more compressed than willow charcoal. Easily sharpen them to a fine point which is good for detailed work and outlines. Compressed charcoal is much darker than willow charcoal but this also means that it is harder to erase.
Special Charcoal
Charcoal Pencils
By using binders to harden charcoal, we can now use them as a core for pencils that can be sharpened to a finer point.
The soft powder is also now encased in wood which helps to keep the black substrate off your fingers as you work.
They will give you great control over your drawings but keep all those traditional charcoal effects that you love, with less mess and more accuracy.
Tinted Charcoal
Tinted Charcoal offers a new twist on one of the earliest drawing mediums. Natural charcoal particles are mixed with a small amount of pigment and the finest clays to extend creative possibilities.
These tinted charcoal colours smudge and blend beautifully to produce deep, rich tones. Unwanted colour can be lifted out quickly with an eraser.
The pencils are natural water solubility creates delicate wash effects when used with water.
Liquid Charcoal
Liquid charcoal is a clean, dust-free material for painting, charcoal drawing and underpainting with charcoal.
It can be used to quickly process large areas. The formula contains high-quality gum arabic, has a gouache-like consistency and can be diluted with water.
Depending on the substrate and the thickness of the layer, it can be wiped off by hand and removed with water. By using it as a thin underpainting, subsequent paints become less dirty than with conventional charcoal underpainting due to the higher adhesion of the bound carbon pigments to the substrate.
Charcoal Powder
We mentioned it before, but you can get charcoal in powder form without having to crush up sticks yourself.
Pure charcoal powder is recommended for large area drawing, three dimensional work and heightening the effect of shadow and light.
Mix the powder with water or a binding agent and you can now use it like a paint similarly to liquid charcoal.
Use tools like blending stumps or your fingers to pick small amounts of powder and draw in a more painterly way.
Basic tools for your drawing
Blending / Paper Stumps
Blending and paper stumps are densely rolled up paper or compressed fibers that create great drawing tools.
They are soft enough for smudge effects, but hard enough to keep its shape for more delicate blending work.
Use blending stumps instead of your fingers to smudge and blend charcoal, their defined tips are more accurate than using your finger and a lot less messy.
Putty Eraser
Kneadable or Putty Art Erasers are the perfect choice for correcting charcoal, pencil and pastel work.
They are easily kneadable and absorbent and leave no residue behind.
These erasers are great drawing tools as they effortlessly lift colour and can be shaped and moulded for specific techniques.
Charcoal Holder
These holders are designed to gently grip your pastel sticks and make them more ergonomic to hold and work with.
Keep your hands clean when working with charcoal and extend your shorter pieces of charcoal to get the most out of them.
Fixatives
Once you have completed an artwork in charcoal it is important to “fix” your work to prevent smudging. Use a fixative spray to preserve your work.
Fixatives sprays create a thin layer or coating on your drawings which prevents the particles from moving. Some fixatives are workable and you can work on top of layers which you want to preserve.
Artist’s spray fixatives are acid free and will not yellow your paper over time unlike some other commonly used fixative substitutes, like hairspray for example.
To see how to use them, watch this awesome video by artist Tom Mulliner – WATCH VIDEO