Charcoal art materials, tools required

Materials and tools required for charcoal art


1. Pencils (< Rs. 20)
Out of 6H 4H 2H H HB B 2B 4B 6B, 2H and HB will suffice for sketching. 2B is strong and dark and can be used for drawing darker lines. 4B and 6B are softer and Darker. 6B lids break often.
2H HB 2B 4B will suffice.
Sharpen them based on the need. To sketch keep them sharp, to give mild shades and gloss keep them blunt.

2. Charcoal powder (< Rs. 20)
There are various grades of charcoal powder, for beginners this shouldn't matter much though.
Be careful not to spread it in all places, it will spoil the whole work area. When starting a drawing if you feel that the drawing is going to dark then you can spread this powder on to the surface and rub it off using a cotton cloth or ear bud. This creates a uniform gray scale on the surface. If you want lighter shades then vine charcoal sticks can be used. It can also be used in later parts of the drawing to create smooth shades and gradients.

3. Ear Buds (< Rs.10)
These are very useful to spread some charcoal powder in places where shade is needed. They are also useful to smudge some areas and also to spread, smoothen the compressed charcoal strokes.  They size of the ear buds suffice the purpose in most cases, however sometimes while smudging very narrow areas they fail. We need to resort to other means in those cases.

4. Charcoal Pencils (< Rs. 20)
The pencils are different from graphite pencils. They are difficult to sharpen and they cannot be used to sketch the outline in most cases. I use these extensively and they suit all situations except shading and covering up large areas. Its cumbersome to sketch and cover larger areas, in such cases compressed charcoal and charcoal sticks are used first and then the pencils are used to carve out the subtle details.

5. Charcoal sticks (< Rs. 50)
These are used to cover large areas. They make the cumbersome task easy. They should be broken in to small pieces and shaped up to serve the purpose.

6. Wood-less Graphite Pencil (< Rs. 30)
These are used to add gloss and shine in some areas. They are also helpful in shading while doing pencil art. However the darkness cannot be varied and its not mandatory for charcoal art.

7. Compressed charcoal (Rs. 100 - * depends on quality)
This is used to cover up large areas with dark patches. And also to create dark backgrounds. The quality varies and the one shown in the image is cheap and leave powdery dust after applying, which needs to blown away. The drawing becomes clumsy after applying this but can be used by a skilled person for his advantage as it creates more natural shades.

8. Eraser, Blade and Brush
These tools are simple but effective. Bit of eraser help out in making highlights and can also to smudge narrow areas. The brush can be used to spread powder.

9. Vine charcoal sticks
The sticks are very soft and are used to create shares. They can also be used to increase the gray level of the medium before starting to sketch to create the necessary mood for the sketch. It is easy to smudge vine charcoal strokes.

Image via Wikipedia

10. Fixative to preserve the art works from smudging
http://www.camlin.com/catalog/artists-range/drawing-material/fixative