DrawBrighton

Introduction to: Charcoal

Added 2021-08-16 09:00:05 +0000 UTC

In this video and blog post Lancelot Richardson will run through some of the most important qualities of charcoal. You can use the videos for reference, skipping forward using the time stamps to find the information and demonstrations most relevant to your work. You'll also find some extra material information and inspirational artists listed below.

Introduction (from the start)

Different forms of charcoal (2mins 4secs)
Pros & cons of charcoal (4mins 10 secs)

Introduction to Willow Charcoal (6mins 28secs)

Blending & erasing (8mins 18secs)
Fixatives (9mins 05secs)

Introduction to Compressed Charcoal (9mins 50secs)

Introduction to Nitram Charcoal (12mins 07secs)

Grades of Nitram Charcoal (12mins 54secs)

Sharpening Willow, Nitram & Compressed Charcoal (14mins 03secs)

Introduction to Charcoal Pencil (16mins 45secs)

Mark-making in Charcoal Pencil (21mins 53secs)
Sharpening Charcoal Pencils (21mins 20 secs)

Introduction to Charcoal Powder (25mins 24secs)

Other:

Using Erasers (27mins 34secs)
Papers to use with charcoal (30mins 50secs)
40 min charcoal portrait demo (34mins 06secs)
Historical charcoal drawings (1 hr 14mins 12 secs)
Clutch pencils & nail polish remover (1 hr 17mins 54secs)

Charcoal 101

Charcoal has been used as a drawing materials since our ancestors first drew with charred sticks puled from a fire; you can see modern charcoal being made in this video here. The most common forms of charcoal are simply anaerobically burnt sticks (often willow or vine) and retain the visual properties of their material, like knots and wood grain. These forms of charcoal are brittle, light in the hand and easy to erase.

Other forms of charcoal are made from powdered charcoal mixed with binders like gumarabic, wax, clay or water-soluble components. These mixtures are then formed into sticks (sold as compressed charcoal) or pencil cores which are heavier, denser and harder to erase than raw charcoal. All forms of charcoal are matt and black, unless further pigment has been added to them.

Liquid, Oiled & Powered Charcoals

Powdered charcoal can be made by crushing, grinding or sanding willow, vine or compressed charcoal and collecting the fine dust.

Oiled charcoal is an unusual but satisfying medium that you can make yourself at home - this Windsor & Newton video shows you how.

Liquid charcoal is becoming increasingly popular and Derwent recently released a water-soluble charcoal paint pans set. As most compressed charcoal contains the water-soluble binder gum arabic you can make your own liquid charcoal by adding water to powdered compressed charcoal:

Step 1: Collect charcoal powder

Step 2: Add water

Step 3: Dilute to preference and use as a coarse paint

Inspirational artists using charcoal today:

Anita Taylor

Professor Anita Taylor is a widely exhibited artist and Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee. She is the founding Director of the UK's foremost annual drawing exhibition, the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (previously the Jerwood Drawing Prize) and Drawing Projects UK, a public-facing initiative dedicated to drawing.

Watch our ETC interview with Anita Taylor HERE
Watch Anita Taylor drawing with charcoal HERE
Follow Anita Taylor on Instagram: @anitataylor_

Resigned by Anita Taylor, charcoal on paper, 182cm x 136cm

Katie Sollohub

Katie Sollohub is a Sussex based artists and whose work has been selected for the Discerning Eye, Lynne Painter Stainers Prize, Royal Academy Summer show, Jerwood Drawing Prize. In 2020 she was awarded 1st prize in the Derwent Drawing Prize for The Blue Bedroom. In her own words, she says: “I like to bring things alive through my creative practice, animating objects and spaces. My eyes reach out like an octopus’s tentacles, my hands and body follow, with gesture and movement, leaving traces of this experience of looking as marks on the page. Observation, sound and touch help me feel present, anchoring me in a place from where I can dream.”

Visit Katie Sollohub's website here: www.katiesollohub.co.uk
Follow Katie Sollohub on Instagram: @katiesollohub

Blue Bed Chamber by Katie Sollohub, charcoal on paper

Stephen Price

Stephen Price is a recent winner of the Wells Art Contemporary Student prize award and the Patron’s Prize at the RBA Annual Exhibition 2021. In his own words, he says: "To express my form of art language, I push beyond pure replication of the photographic images. I deviate from the physical image by combining my imagination and memory. The depth of charcoal helps to reinforce this and it also expresses a smokiness and blurriness that communicates my emotions. By applying thick acrylic layers with a palette knife and brushstrokes create a physicality of texture that is rough and mould. I believe my work is helping me to express my black identity, specifically in celebrating the beauty of Blackness through those materials, which allow the work to be closer to my own reality and experiences."