Drawing pencils are often considered sturdy, reliable and precise. Charcoal, on the other hand, is a wild counterpart: it’s bold, daring and dramatic. It’s much darker than any pencil and has a richness, making drawing with charcoal completely unique experience.
Charcoal is also a versatile medium. While you can create extremely realistic, sensitive drawings with it, there is something about picking up that dusty stump of charcoal that frees us to go big, expressive and gestural.
Charcoal of All Kinds: Charcoal comes in several different forms.
- The compressed stick, which can can be hard, produces a grayer shade, or soft and very deep black.
- A softer charcoal is easier to smudge: it’s the one that will get all over your hands, your paper, and probably your clothing and face too!
- Pressed charcoal also comes as a pencil. This is useful for detailed drawings because it can be sharpened to a fine point. It is also much less messy!
- Willow or vine charcoal comes actually as a willow stick: it is long, cylindrical and wiggly. Willow charcoal is also very soft and produces a velvety, dove grey. It has a great texture to draw with, but is also very smudgy.
Why I love Charcoal:
Charcoal is used much the same way as a pencil. It’s a tool for drawing, shading and blending, but there is something psychologically different about using charcoal. It lets you get more expressive and work larger without getting stuck in details. Charcoal sticks especially can force you to focus on large shapes and general contours because of their blunt ends.
Charcoal Drawing Techniques:
- Charcoal can be used in the same way you use a pencil to draw and shade anything, but it’s best suited to to more expressive types of shading like hatching.
- Charcoal can also be used to do the preliminary drawings of a painting on canvas.
- Once you’ve blocked in your shapes and values, spray with a workable fixative and start painting. Turning your charcoal stick on its side and filling in major areas of a subject is a great way to train your brain to see shapes rather than contours.
- One of my favorite thing to do with charcoal, however, is gesture drawings. It’s the perfect tool for executing the large, sweeping strokes needed to capture a gesture.
- Use a nice chunk and a big pad of cartridge paper to get the most out of your drawings.
It is always a good idea to have a variety of drawing tools to choose from. The pencil is great for detailed renderings, but when it comes to expressive drawings I always reach for may stick of charcoal!
Do you prefer drawing with pencil or charcoal?
*****
Guest artist/author Miranda Aschenbrenner is a fine artist who specializes in graphite drawings. You can visit her blog to learn more about her art tips and drawing techniques. http://www.learntoart.com/
Thank you Miranda for another great guest article! ~Lori
PS. Let’s meet on Twitter and Facebook and Google Plus…and here is my website to view my paintings. ~Lori
Here are a few other articles you might enjoy:
6 Tips for a Stress Free Sketchbook
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About Lori McNee
I love your pencil art…
And these are very useful tips for me..
Thanks for taking time to comment here. It is great to see you & glad you found this article useful!
Best – Lori
Pencil! Tho most ppl that know me say my charcoal works are better, to me the good ol graphite pencil will be always the best! I dont smudge it, and its like the whole drawing becomes your signature, when i do a portrait on charcoal,as good as it seems, it doesnt look so “personal” as my pencil drawings
You can compare them on my site and tell me your opinion
http://danielsanart.com/
Thanks for the tips
Hi Daniel. Thanks for stopping by this blog for a visit. I agree with you about the pencil vs. charcoal. As I was developing as an artist, I specialized in graphite wildlife drawings. I found the pencil easier to control and less messy than charcoal. Maybe I didn’t give charcoal enough of a chance, that said, I did enjoy gesture drawing with charcoal over the pencil though…charcoal is a looser medium and lends itself to this type of drawing.
I looked at your site and I have to agree that your charcoal drawings are stronger than your pencil works. In my opinion, there is more depth and richness of character. You have motivated me to give charcoal another try!
Thanks for sharing your site with us-
Lori
Hi! thanks to you, Im glad you saw them . Great, i cant wait to see your charcoal works
Ill keep watching your blog, its so rich and useful 
Have a good day!
Thanks again Daniel. I appreciate your nice feedback…let’s keep in touch!
Lori
i still dont understand how to use charcoal sticks and what they are used for
Hello Dustin-
Charcoal is a ancient medium that was used by the first known artists – cave dwellers. They would use the chunks of charcoal from the fire to draw on the cave walls. Today, people use the charcoal sticks for drawing. The sticks allow for a looser stroke than a charcoal pencil will make. Also, the artist can smudge it and use the side of the stick for different effects.
I hope this helps a little…
Happy drawing-
Lori
Hi Lori,
I am a would-be painter, but I still lack some basic skills in painting. Your tips are so useful. Your site is a huge inspiration. Thanks
Pencil!!! I’ve found graphite always messy & hard stick on to paper… i really wonder how people create magnificent portraits with charcoal.. some of my effort with pencil can be seen here..
http://nikhilroynikz.wordpress.com
Beautiful work, Nikhil! Thanks for sharing. I have never been successful with charcoal either. I love the pencil…in fact, I am planning to return to that medium soon.
Happy creating-
Lori
Thank you very much for visiting my blog … I’m an engineer by profession and do artwork only in my freetime… i have an affection towards making portraits and oil painting….but due to time constraints i’ve shifted to pencil shading…
By the way, i visited you website…. ur landscapes are magnificent… i loved the way you paint reflections (especially reflection of sky) in water…
Regards,
Nikhil
Fantastic work! I too love charcoal even though I am not nearly as talented as you. Let me know what you think of my work http://www.itutorblog.com/2011/04/charcoal-and-pastels-a-peek-into-my-sketchbook/
Great work posted here. I recently finished a charcoal and graphite portrait but I am not sure about mixing the grey of graphite with this really dark of charcoal. I love the darks but also love the control that you can have with graphite– but the graphite has a little shine next to the texture of charcoal. Is this something that I should mix or is it one or the other? Also how much workable fixative is it possible to use when building darks? Thanks.
Hello Jesse,
Mixing the two drawing mediums will make it difficult to even out the shine. I am not aware of a product that will help even them out. Here are some general guidelines for using a spray fixative.
Make sure your drawing is free from dust. Shake the can will help the fixative flow smoothly through the nozzle without drips and blobs. You can use 2-3 coats and let them dry in between. Follow the instructions on the can.
Good luck-
Lori
Thanks, I was a little confused when I read “pencil” in some instructions and thought the meaning was graphite instead of charcoal pencil. I’ll keep trying.
hey im alisha im 17 years old. ive been drawin with pencil since i was 3. i just recently tryed charcoal pencils. it is so much easier than pencil. but i still have some more learning to do.