Charcoal is nothing other than plant carbon and its use goes back to the very origins of humanity. Cave paintings demonstrate that plant carbon, powdered and thickened, most likely with saliva, was used to create drawings. This testifies to the long lasting, durable nature of charcoal in both sketches and finished works.
Guercino (1591-1666), Seated young man. The J. Paul Getty Museum
Sticks of charcoal, available in various thicknesses.
Charcoal is made from willow, lime, or walnut tree branches, specially selected so as not to include knots, and is burned very slowly so that all the wood carbonizes equally on the surface and the inside. The branches must have no knots so that no hard particles scratch the support when the charcoal is used in a drawing. Charcoal is a substance that is dry to the touch and leaves a very dark gray, almost black, matte line. Because it consists of fine carbonized particles, it can be spread over the support (usually paper), blurred, and can produce various gradations of gray.
CHARCOAL DUST
Many artists also use powdered charcoal as a shading medium. Charcoal stubs that are too small to use can be ground in a coffee-grinding machine for subsequent use, and can be applied to paper inside a cotton cloth.
Charcoal is plant carbon, made by burning small branches. The slow combustion it undergoes makes it useful for drawing.
Wearing away the tip of a charcoal stick creates sharpened edges that produce fine lines.
Pressed flat against the paper, a stick of charcoal creates a broad, dark mark.
Charcoal is available in various thicknesses, depending on the size of the branches used for manufacturing it. It ranges from sticks measuring 3 or 4 mm to 4 cm in diameter. Naturally, the diameter determines the width of the stroke, although it is feasible to achieve fine lines with thick pieces of charcoal by drawing on the edge formed by rubbing the tip against the support. Some manufacturers provide thick pieces of charcoal (irregular cuts from willow trunks) that are useful for large-scale work.
Any type of charcoal that is not a carbonized piece of wood is a combination of powdered carbon (or black pigment) and a thickener. Today there are many varieties of thickened carbon that are sold as pencils, leads, or sticks. The ingredients of charcoal may vary significantly, and may include pigments, soot, clay, or graphite. Often, they contain no carbon, which makes them more similar to pastels than charcoal. The basic difference between charcoal pencils and pastels lies in the greater density and stability of the line (the thickener fixes it to the paper) and the greater hardness and homogeneity of leads and sticks available.
The intensity of thickened carbon in leads or sticks allows for greater contrast and density of line.
These can have a cylindrical or square shape. They usually contain more oil than pencils, due to their high level of graphite. Their stroke is intense and velvety, adheres very well to the paper, and is hard to rub out. Most manufacturers sell sticks that range between three to four degrees of hardness.
Carbon that is thickened with clay and graphite and packed into a wooden casing achieves a stable, dark stroke, and is available in differing degrees of hardness, depending on the amount of clay it contains. Pencils with thickened carbon leads are brittle and hard to sharpen, with a performance similar to pastel pencils. More oily pencils with pigments thickened with graphite have a softer stroke and are easier to sharpen. Manufacturers who produce sticks of thickened carbon also make pencils from this same material.
The carbon pencil provides a thicker and darker stroke than charcoal. Its stroke is much more intense than the softest of graphite leads.
Series of carbon pencils with different levels of hardness. Each manufacturer has their own standard of hardness and some brands provide pencils in three or more degrees of hardness.
Carbon pencils and sticks handle as easily as a conventional pencil, although their strokes have a much darker tone.
OILY PENCILS
Some artists prefer these oily pencils, originally created for lithography, because of their intense, permanent line and the ease with which the tip can be sharpened. The pencil’s casing is, in reality, a fine strip of wood rolled around the lead. This covering unrolls with the aid of a piece of string as the lead diminishes.
Because it is a medium that provides more coverage than pencils do, charcoal permits many more effects than pencil, while still providing considerable opportunities for detail. Its tone scale (from soft gray to light black) is broad, and can be spread, blended, and handled with the fingers. As it is undoubtedly a “dirty” medium, it requires larger formats than pencils do and greater care in handling. These are some features to keep in mind when drawing with charcoal.
Charcoal strokes are much thicker than those produced by graphite pencils. When drawing, the texture of the paper sharpens the tip of the stick, creating edges that artists use to obtain much finer and more accurate lines. They can also easily create straight lines if artists lay the sticks flat on the paper and move them in a vertical direction. Drawing horizontally in the same position will easily produce wide strokes.
Lines and straight lines can be drawn with charcoal by working on the tip itself or by placing the stick flat on the paper.
In these drawings you can appreciate the result of applying the charcoal flat to the paper or using the tip.
In the light background the spots have been blended
Here, the lines are partially blended.
Soft marks achieved by applying the stick on its side.
Lines obtained by drawing with the tip of the stick.
Creating lines, marks, and blurring areas are the fundamental techniques of charcoal drawing. This work illustrates its possibilities.
Charcoal can be blended with a scumble, a rag, or fingers, which broadens its range of possibilities. Once the charcoal blurs, its tone lightens, which is almost the only way of achieving gradients of color, since the change in intensity caused by merely changing the pressure of the charcoal on the paper is scarcely noticeable. The possibilities of blending are much greater with sticks of natural charcoal than with carbon pencils or pressed carbon sticks.
The artist’s hand is the basic tool for blending charcoal.
Charcoal requires no other materials than a piece of paper and the charcoal itself, but most artists also use rags, scumbles and erasers to obtain effects and nuances that would be difficult to achieve any other way. These tools yield excellent results and broaden the possibilities of this very elementary medium.
Correct use of the scumble, or stump, involves seeing it as a genuine tool for drawing beyond blurring, something like a “paper finger.” Scumbles, unless they are brand new or very clean, always stain. Artists must use them to shade, highlight, and nuance, not just to extend previously drawn marks. In the drawing below, the scumble develops all the tones in the work from just a few charcoal lines.
The scumble is an absorbent paper cylinder that spreads the charcoal and stains the paper with a broad, diffuse stroke.
Rubbing the tip of a scumble on a piece of paper can clean it completely.
This entire drawing was done solely with the tip of a charcoal-stained stump.
Blurring and rubbing out are the main aspects of the technique for composing this street scene.
The fact that charcoal does not adhere well to the support makes it very easy to rub out and erase. Malleable erasers are essential tools, as they not only correct mistakes, but also open up whites in a mark or blurred area, restoring the color of the paper after drawing on it. You can also draw with an eraser; it can lighten tones, develop details, and illuminate parts of a drawing. Like the stump, the eraser becomes a veritable drawing medium in the hands of a skilled, resourceful artist, and surpasses its corrective purpose.
The rubber eraser cuts through this area of charcoal. It is more effective than the malleable eraser, though it is also more abrasive.
Malleable erasers are very flexible and absorb diffuse charcoal spots well, but are not useful in rubbing out intense lines.
The finish of a charcoal drawing depends, to a great extent, on the paper used. The larger the grain of the paper, the more intense the lines will be, since more particles will lodge in the crevices of the grain. Charcoal is an entirely natural product that does not incorporate any thickener to hold it together, which means that a fixative is required to keep the particles from loosening over time.
All paper with a creased surface is suitable for charcoal drawing with charcoal. The grain determines the result: the larger the grain, the harder it is to achieve a thorough, detailed finish. In general, very large works require very rough paper. Smooth or glossy papers with a fine grain are not suitable for charcoal drawing since the particles do not adhere to their surface and the lines become very faint.
Charcoal lines on three different kinds of paper; fine-grained, coarse-grained, and laid paper, respectively.
Three examples of watercolor paper of different grains, and the effect of charcoal marks on them.
This is laid paper with a medium grain. Laid paper retains lines left by the wire mesh of the mold with which paper is manufactured. It is traditionally used in charcoal work, with thickened carbon or sanguine. Its special texture has just the right level of hold to retain the charcoal or chalk particles while still allowing for ample shading.
This is perfectly suited for charcoal drawing, provided that you do not seek a finish that is very densely colored or very rich in shading. Its light grain prevents a lot of lines from accumulating. However, the paper deteriorates or tears with excessive erasing.
Colored papers, if they are not too dark, are a viable option for charcoal drawing, especially for those that include lightly colored highlights. Drawing by Mercedes Gaspar.
Fine sketching papers permit ethereal and soft effects, but do not facilitate intense contrasts.
Charcoal drawing on thick-grained paper by David Sanmiguel.