Drawing with Charcoal
Feb 21, 2010 Drawing
If the pencil is sturdy, reliable and precise, charcoal is like its wild counterpart: bold, daring and dramatic. Blacker than any pencil and rich in texture, drawing with charcoal is an altogether different experience.
Don’t get me wrong: charcoal is a versatile medium and you can achieve extremely sensitive, realistic drawings using it. There is just something about taking up that messy stump of charcoal that frees us to get big, expressive and gestural.
Types of Charcoal
Charcoal comes in a few different forms. You can get pressed charcoal that comes as a compressed stick. These can be hard, producing a grayer shade, or soft and very deep black. The softer the charcoal, the easier it will be to smudge. This is the kind of charcoal that will get your hands, your paper, and quite possibly your clothing and face dirty.
This pressed charcoal also comes in pencil form. This can be useful for detailed drawings because you can sharpen it to a fine point. It’s also much less messy!
A third type of charcoal is willow or vine charcoal. This comes in the form of an actual branch: it’s long, cylindrical and wiggly. Willow charcoal is very soft and produces a delicious dove grey. It has one of the nicest textures to draw with, but is also very smudgy.
Why Charcoal?
Charcoal functions in much the same way as a pencil. You can draw, shade and blend. But there’s something psychologically different about using charcoal. It allows you to get more expressive and work bigger without getting caught up in the details. Charcoal sticks especially, because they don’t have a fine point, can force you to focus on large shapes and general contours.
What to Draw
You can draw and shade anything in charcoal the same way you would a pencil. Charcoal also lends itself well to more expressive types of shading like hatching.
My favorite thing to do with charcoal, though, is gesture drawings. Charcoal is perfect for making the large, sweeping strokes needed to capture a gesture.
It’s always nice to have a variety of drawing tools to choose from. The pencil is perfect for detailed renderings, but when it comes to expressive drawings I always reach for the charcoal!
Please share your experiences! Do you prefer pencil or charcoal? Does it depend on what you’re drawing?
Tags: charcoal, drawing tips, tools
How to Make a Tortillon in 5 Easy Steps
Dec 6, 2009 Drawing
1. Get a piece of paper. Any kind of paper will work, including computer paper. Experiment with different kinds and see if there’s one you like best!
2. Cut the paper in half diagonally, about an inch from each corner. You now have the makings for two tortillons.
3. Starting at the short edge, roll the paper up as tightly as you can. This might be a bit tricky at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!
4. Use something long and thin to poke into the end of your tortillon. The wrong end of a skinny paint brush works well! Push the tube out to create the point.
5. Use a small piece of tape to secure the end and voila! Your very own homemade tortillon!
I used to do this all the time when I first started drawing. I had to practice a few times before I could remember the exact technique, but it’s not at all difficult.
A blending stick is just a tightly rolled piece of paper. Tortillons are not exactly expensive, but making your own can save a bit of money. It can also save your butt if you desperately need a clean one and you can’t go buy one!
If you’ve just read this and you’re thinking, “What the heck is a tortillon?” a tortillon is a tool that you use when shading pencil drawings. It can also be called a blending stick or blending stump. Have a look at my drawing tools page for more details!
Tags: blending, getting started, tools, Tutorials
My Favorite Birthday Present
Nov 24, 2009 Art General, Special Bulletins
As some of you know, it was my birthday this weekend. I turned the ‘big’ two-five! I had a wonderful weekend including a surprise dinner with my parents and an overnight stay at a lakeside bed and breakfast. In short, I was spoiled!
And what birthday is complete without gifts? I was also spoiled in that department, receiving snazzy purple earphones for my ipod, a few of my favorite books, some driving gloves and comfy, fuzzy slippers! But my most favorite gift of all this year? An ancient tool box!
This relic had been in my parents’ garage for nearly ten years. Before that, it belonged to my uncle, who passed away when I was in high school. Who knows how long he had it, but this baby was definitely made back when things were built to last!
My dad recently hauled it out and asked me if I wanted it. It was covered in rust and full of junk, but how could I resist?
On my birthday, my dad presented it to me. He had lovingly cleaned it out, scrubbed it free of rust, and painted the bottom jet black and the insides fire engine red. Still smelling of fresh paint, it was a thing of beauty!
You may be wondering what in the world this has to do with art. Well, my constructed paintings are made with traditional carpentry tools: hammer and nails, wood glue, skill saw, screws and screw driver. These are the tools of my trade, and I consider them to be as important as my paint and brushes. Also, being a female and wielding these ‘masculine’ tools makes me feel special!
This empty tool box is full of promise and potential. I am very much looking forward to filling it up with all my bits and pieces. I love its family connection, and the fact that it’s old. There’s not a single one like it in the whole world!
Tags: tools
Drawing Tools to Improve your Drawings
Jun 10, 2009 Drawing
Besides a pencil, there are a few other things that most artists consider necessary for drawing: erasers, a blending stick, a sharpener, paper, and a fixative.
Erasers
You will need two different kinds of erasers. You are probably familiar with the large white eraser, which is useful for erasing early mistakes and big areas of pencil. The other type of eraser is a kneaded eraser. These gray erasers are flexible and malleable, and come in rectangles wrapped in plastic. Before using it, you’ll want to work the eraser a bit to make it soft. Kneaded erasers are useful because you can form a small point to erase in tight spaces. They are also good for gently lifting graphite to create subtle highlights. If you can only have one, I would recommend the kneaded eraser as it is more versatile.
Blending is essential to achieving smooth shading free of pencil strokes. Many people start out by blending their drawings with their fingers, but the oils in your skin can be damaging to your work. Blending sticks, also called tortillons, can be made by tightly rolling a piece of paper, or bought. They come in varying sizes and what you will need depends on the type of shading you are doing. A large blending stick is good for large areas of blending, while a small one is good for tight, detailed areas.
Sharpener
Duh. This is pretty self explanatory, but I wanted to mention that a good, sharp sharpener is the best. A cheap one is more likely to break lead and ruin your pencils. I also want to add that if you’re doing a lot of drawing and you can work it into the budget, an electric sharpener is well worth the investment.
Paper
Paper can be a very personal choice and it’s best to experiment with a couple different types. Some people prefer to draw on watercolour paper, which has some texture. Other people like to work with a very smooth surface for crisper lines and smoother shading. Whichever you choose, get a heavier paper that will stand up to blending and erasing.
Fixative
Fixative is necessary to preserve the quality of your drawings. A fixative “fixes” the graphite and keeps it from smudging. There are many different kinds of fixatives, but a good one is Krylon Workable Fixative. This fixative allows you to draw back on top of it, but is also a good finishing spray.
Now that you’re familiar with the basic drawing tools, the next step is learning how to shade!
Tags: art tips, drawing tips, getting started, tools
Drawing Tools: How to Choose a Pencil
Jun 6, 2009 Art General, Drawing
What kind of pencil do you need for drawing? The truth is that you can use any kind of pencil as a drawing tool, but some pencils are better for certain types of drawings than others. The type of pencil you choose depends on what you need it for.
Pencil Hardness Scale
The array of drawing pencils found at the art supply store can be overwhelming at first, but it’s quite simple to navigate once you know what you need. Pencils are rated on a scale of numbers and letters that describes the hardness of the graphite. Both hard and soft pencils have their uses in drawings.
“H” Pencils
“H” is the letter assigned to the hard graphite. The larger the number in front of the “H,” the harder the graphite; a 6H pencil is harder than a 3H one. A hard pencil produces a fine, light line. The hard pencils erase easily as long as you press lightly. If you press hard enough to indent the paper, you’ll never get rid of your line. I use a hard pencil to draw my grids and the basic outlines of my drawing, because these lines will need to be erased later.
“B” Pencils
A “B” indicates the softer pencils, again with the higher number being the softer graphite. A soft pencil will give a darker, fuzzier line. I use a B or a 2B pencil for the majority of my shading, switching to something softer, like a 4B or 6B, for the deepest shadows. You’ll want to be careful with these for two reasons: they can be difficult to erase completely, and if you press too hard your shadows can become reflective and metallic.
Other Pencils
An “HB” pencil, the standard pencil available almost anywhere, falls right in the middle. I find these to be a little too hard to get smooth shading. A letter “F” indicates a firm, or fine point pencil. It falls between HB and H on the scale.
The pencil you choose will depend on what kind of drawing you are doing, but it’s best to have a few in your tool box as you will probably need several different pencils.
Tags: art tips, drawing tips, pencils, tools
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