Charcoal Drawing: How to Hold a Charcoal

HOLDING THE CHARCOAL

Holding the charcoal can be very different to holding a pencil. The charcoal medium is usually used with speed and lends itself to a more sketching approach to drawing. It’s not usually used for detailed drawings and is used more broadly as an expression of our observations. So therefore, the way we approach a charcoal drawing can be very different to how we would usually do a pencil drawing. When we are doing a pencil drawing we tend only to use hand and wrist movement, but when doing a charcoal drawing, we almost always tend to use our hand, wrist and arm as well in the action of the drawing.

FOUR WAYS OF HOLDING THE CHARCOAL

1-2) This demonstrates the two ways that are mostly preferred for sketching with charcoal.

3) Making a mark using the charcoal as demonstrated in number 3 we can make a very sharp cutting line. A line that feels as though it has been incised on the paper. We do this by taking a piece of charcoal that is about 2" long and place it flat on the paper.

Holding it between your thumb and fingers pull the charcoal a long the paper support whilst applying pressure. You see that this mark has a character of its own.

4) Matisse - when in later life he had difficulty holding charcoal he would tape scene painters charcoal to a stick and make rather large drawings. This drawing would be completed quite a distance from the support so the drawing had a beautiful simplistic quality to it with broad sweeping lines.

Charcoal: Other forms

THE CHARCOAL PENCIL

The Charcoal pencil is rather like an ordinary pencil, but it has the sensitivity of charcoal and yet at the same time a degree of control that a pencil has.

1) Diagonal shading used in a sketching technique.

2) A series of vertical lines.

3) Vertical squiggly lines.

4) Vertical and horizontal squiggly lines.

5) Horizontal dashes.

6) Varied directional marks.

7) Dots.

8) Diagonal lines.

9) Light horizontal lines.

10) Vertical and horizontal lines moving from light to dark.

11) Squiggly lines.

12) Right angle lines going from light to dark.

SCENE PAINTER'S CHARCOAL

Scene painter's charcoal is much thicker than ordinary charcoal, and is used to make broader, bolder, thicker lines and tones to fill larger areas more quickly.

1) A broad thick wavy line.

2) A broad straight line.

3) Small dash like marks in rows.

4) A dark tone.

CONTE CRAYON

Conte crayons come in oblong sticks and in a limited number of grades from soft to hard.

The conte crayon is a very traditional material and is made similarly to compressed charcoal. It’s a finely ground powder that is mixed with a binder and formed into long sticks. It’s more solid than compressed charcoal, and this characteristic makes it very different to charcoal in that it’s not as atmospheric in nature. Conte crayons lend themselves more easily to mark making and a technique called frottage.

The marks made with the conte crayon from 1to 16 are controlled marks that imply textures. Using marks we can imply surfaces that are rough, smooth, soft, hard. We can suggest through mark making the illusion of wood, metal, string, sponge, and so on.

Once one has found a method of utilizing mark making, the drawings themselves tend to become a technical process rather than to do so much with the creative act. However, as with perspective the results of this type of drawing can be impressive.

1,2) Marks that imply a woven or knitted surface.

3) Marks that imply a wooden surface.

4) Marks that imply a carpet or grass.

5) Marks that imply a woven pattern (a candle wick bed spread).

6) Marks that imply a woven pattern like a straw hat.

7,8) Rope and string implied marks.

9,10) Honey combed or circle patterns.

11) Marks that imply the bristle of a brush.

12) Marks that are implying a sharp hard surface.

13) Marks that imply tufts of grass.

14) Marks that imply the nature of leaves.

15) Marks that imply moving water.

16) Marks that imply rippled water.

All these marks are just to set an example of what you can achieve. So be prepared to make your own contribution to this glossary. So experiment with your medium and make a whole new series of marks, as all this will add to your fundamental drawing experience that will enable you to express your ideas with confidence

Cont. to: Charcoal Projects