The charcoal drawing medium is used for rough preliminary sketches in preparation for painting design, or for finished drawings.
About Charcoal
Charcoal is a dry drawing material used much like graphite and has many advantages. It is carbonized from burning wood in the absence of oxygen. This burnt wood, or the light, black residue after the wood has been burnt, has excellent covering power and intense blacks and, in some cases, is easier to erase than graphite.
Vine or Willow
Vine charcoal is lightweight, inexpensive, and an excellent tool for achieving the soft edges and atmospheric effects, or "sfumato" (the Italian word meaning "to tone down" or "to evaporate like smoke"), found in Leonardo da Vinci's drawings.
Compressed
Charcoal sticks or compressed charcoal blocks create marks more blunt than the precision of a pencil, so it's hard to get stuck in the details. If more detailed work is needed, it is available in pencil form or can be sharpened for finer details.
Pencils
Charcoal pencils and pastel pencils are like distant cousins. They are both bound and encased in wood. Charcoal pencils have compressed charcoal mixed with a binder, whereas black pastel pencils have black pigment (not just charcoal) combined with a binder. Depending on the brand, pastel pencils go on smoother than compressed charcoal pencils, allowing smooth gradation in drawings.
A Brief History
Charcoal is one of the first tools used to make artwork, appearing in cave paintings dating back 28,000 years. It is the Earth's drawing tool.
Vine or Willow Charcoal
Vine charcoal is produced by carbonizing wood sticks, most commonly willow and linden. It is excellent for gesture drawing and easy to erase with an eraser or even your hand.
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| Vine Charcoal Sticks |
Nitram Academie Fusains is the preferred charcoal of professional artists, academics, and ateliers. Long considered the most refined charcoal for drawing, it is packaged in five soft, medium, or hard charcoal batons.
Compressed Charcoal
Compressed charcoal is powdered charcoal mixed with a gum binder; the hardness is determined by the amount of binder used. It is compressed into round or square sticks. The amount of binder determines the stick's hardness. It gets super dark, creating blacker values for dark accents, but it may not be easy to erase. It will stain the paper. This is also the type of charcoal found inside charcoal pencils.
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| Compressed Charcoal |
General's Jumbo Charcoal is a preferred brand; the package contains three Jumbo Charcoal Sticks, each of 2B, 4B, and 6B. It may be sharpened to a point for detailed work and blends easily with a paper stub.
Charcoal Powder
Powdered charcoal is often used to "tone" or cover large sections of a drawing surface. Drawing over the toned areas darkens them, but the artist can also lighten (or completely erase) them to create lighter tones. Createacolor is the preferred brand.
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| Charcoal Powder |
Charcoal Pencils
Faber-Castell PITT® Charcoal Pencils glide softly across the paper, rub and smudge effortlessly, and can be erased and overlaid with minimal difficulty. Grease-free and oil-free, these artist-quality charcoal pencils make bluish-black lines. Preferred brands include:
- Faber-Castell PITT® Charcoal Pencil (Soft)
- OR Stabilo CarbOthello "Lamp Black" (No. 760)
- OR Faber-Castell PITT® (No. 101)
- OR Conté "Black"
- OR for pencil lovers: Faber-Castell Polychromos "Black."
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| Pit Charcoal Pencil |
All Charcoal pencils come in different grades. Hardness or softness is graded on a scale created in the 20th century. Faber-Castell Pitt Charcoal Pencils are made from soot and clay, which produce a soft grade. The grade for each pencil is determined by the type or amount of binder used during manufacturing.
Grades include HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B, which are used as a continuum from very hard (9H) to fine (F) to very black (9B). The HB pencil is the middle ground and is the most straightforward to work with using an eraser. Letters stand for the following:
H for hard,
F for fine,
B for black
Charcoal Tips & Techniques
Charcoal, like graphite, varies in hardness and is also available in pencils or powder. Charcoal is excellent for tonal or value drawings. Shading may be produced by smudging the marks made using a stump (made with cotton), tortillion (made from rolled paper), or even a Kleenex.
Work in Any Size
It is excellent for expressive drawing and can be used for larger-sized works. You just buy more giant chunks of charcoal.
Works Great on Textured Paper
When buying paper at the art store, look for "charcoal paper" on the label, or feel the texture with your hand. If it has a textured surface called the paper's "tooth," it will work great with charcoal. The "tooth" allows the piece to hold the charcoal's tiny particles and better adhere to the surface. Note that the amount of texture or "tooth" varies among brands, so you must experiment to find what you like.
Historical Techniques
Leonardo da Vinci's Drawing Materials - a demonstration of materials and how to use them
How to Sharpen Charcoal Pencils
Sandpaper is preferred for sharpening charcoal pencils. Some charcoal pencils will break off in a manual or electric rotary sharpener, so it is recommended that you use a razor blade or an X-acto knife with sandpaper. Click here to watch a video on how to sharpen a Charcoal Pencil.
Charcoal Resources
See below for links to resources.
Articles
See below for links to articles or websites.
- History of Charcoal - Overview by the manufacturer of "Nitram Charcoal."
- Hunting for the History of Charcoal - Article by the manufacturer of "Nitram Charcoal."
- Charcoal & Pencil Drawings Techniques - A general instruction or tutorial by J.D. Hillberry
Books
See below for links to a list of recommended books, ranked by instructors within our Google Book Library.
- Click here for a list of Art Verve Instructor recommendations.
Videos
See below for links to articles or websites.
