A popular medium for drawing since the Renaissance, used for preparatory purposes like developing initial ideas, preliminary outlines, areas of shadow, or for squaring grids used to transfer a design to another surface
Charcoal in the 19th century
Artists used it to make highly finished drawings featuring textural effects, scraping, the mixing of water or other liquids with charcoal powder, stumping, and various reductive techniques such as erasing
Chiaroscuro
The interplay between light and shadow that the charcoal medium is prized for
Fabricated charcoal
Powdered and recompressed to different degrees of hardness, providing the artist with an even greater expanded range of dark grays and blacks
Charcoal drawing
Can be enhanced with touches of pastel or gouache (opaque watercolor), or by applying toned fixative to the paper to darken the support
Drawing with charcoal
Can appear daunting to the inexperienced, yet it is one of the most versatile, inexpensive and fun mediums
Supplies needed for charcoal drawing
Nitram charcoal sticks ranging in a hardness of B Soft, Hb Medium and H hard
Paper
Kneaded eraser
Gum eraser
Blending stump
Sandpaper
Wax paper or paper towels
Small drafting brush
Acrylic paint brush
Workable fixative (recommended for finished work)
Charcoal drawings
Self-Portrait by Pablo Picasso
The head of the Virgin in three-quarter view facing right by Leonardo da Vinci
