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

Charcoal Art - Sharon Stone - Step by Step

Charcoal Art of Sharon stone   - 21st November 2009
Step by Step

Step 1

General outline + Shading guides, Compressed Charcoal applied directly, Charcoal dust not yet removed

 

Step 2
Remove the charcoal dust with least damage :P
Adding shades using vine charcoal, charcoal powder and some features using charcoal pencils.

• Damn, its difficult to draw the face with charcoal. Need to fix it a little bit.
  

 

 

• First layer of shading done
  

Step 3

Enhance the shades and features.
Hair needs to merge in to the background !

• Face fixed in the above image
  

• Enhanced Shading - Layer2
  

Step 4
Close to final, Need to make the shades and feature sharp to get the final finish.

 

Final
Check the final image here.

Mistakes

I had made too many corrections in the facial region, after a point the paper itself was damaged. Thats why the facial region is brighter that the rest of the body. I dint have the guts to raise the gray level in that region as it might screw up all the features. Will try some other quality of paper next time.

Charcoal Art - Robert de niro - Step by Step

Robert de niro Charcoal Art - 13th December 2009

Step 1
General Outline

Step2

Applied compressed charcoal in come places. (Coat, cushion of furniture)
Vine charcoal is applied on facial features and then blended using blending stubs.

 

Final

Solitude - Charcoal art - 9th November 2009 - Step by Step

Charcoal art of an old lady

Step 1

• Tried compressed charcoal as you can see in the top left corner. Dint work well actualy. Now I know i have to use vine charcoal. I was actually trying to increase the grey level.
  

• Closer look at the eyes

Step 2

• Right ear and Jaw are big. More features, Hair have been added
  

Step 4

• Fixed both of them. Increased the gray level. All features retouched. Time to go for the background and rest of the body.
  

Step 5

• Half way through with the background and the hands

Final

• Background Enriched, All features retouched. Heavy use of ear buds to spread compressed charcoal. Overall gray scale adjusted.

Megan Fox - Charcoal Art - Continued from 30% of work done

It was about 2pm and i was looking at the work that i had done two days back and it was a real mess. The shades under the eyes were too dark, the nose had its own darker shade and the lips were moved to the left. I also noticed that the left eye was a little lower than the right. 

Now you should know the problems i faced using charcoal from :

http://rakeshtheartist.blogspot.com/2009/10/charcoal-general-experience.html

so here i was totally lost. The female in the video was pissing me off even more, by then she had completed most of the features. I also noticed that some of the charcoal had smudged out of the sketching area.

Lesson 1 : Finish the entire work in a single session and apply the fixative (Recommended). If it happens that you have to work in sessions there is something called the bakery paper which you can use to save the art from smudging. You must have seen it in bakeries, they use it to cover cakes.

Lesson 2 : Clean you hands once in 30 minutes (and obviously before you start anything). My hands would become blackish of charcoal and the whole drawing area becomes dirty. You can also opt for a smudge guard (www.smudgeguard.com) to reduce the effects of smudging (As of now no idea where i can get it in India).

Lesson 3 : Place a sheet of paper under the page which you are currently doing and also use it to protect the previous one. Also use one to cover part of the art work while doing the other portions to avoid you hands touching them.

So i had only one option and it was to erase the left eye and also to slice up half the lips. So I did erase lots and then i felt something was finally working out. I cut the eraser in to pieces and started working on the places where i felt the tone was darker than i wanted. It worked out as it was easy to erase charcoal. And it gave a more blended look. Sharper pieces of eraser for more sharper edges and flat portions of eraser for blending.

Lesson 4 : Use white plastic eraser as its common among artists. Other erasers damage the paper and also leave the paper yellowish. Electric eraser are also available (not available in India though :-((( ).

Lesson 5 : You do more charcoal art work with eraser than you do with the charcoal pencil, compressed charcoal or charcoal sticks. Its an iterative process. First an attempt is made to bring the required effect or shade or shape using charcoal then the eraser is used to correct some portions and some effects come only out of the eraser and not through the pencil. You can always get a lighter tone by applying less pressure on the pencil and also by erasing. So two options you have. I would suggest to use both to get the effect.

Lesson 6 : Be always ready to erase 50% of what you have done. More than that, trash it and start fresh.

So now that i have learned that eraser plays an important part in charcoal art, i started to do the eyes and lips all over again. I started looking at the angles and proportions and found various places where i had sketched without even thinking. I remember myself being very meticulous with respect to proportions and angles long time ago. Damn me how much have i forgotten ?. So finished with the eyes the lips and the over all shape was now good.

Lesson 7 : Never forget Angles, Proportions and Tones. Double check and be sure you have gotten them right.

Hmmm plenty of lessons that i have learnt now and in general an artist has to be very patient, poised and very clear about what is required. One should always take  as much time he wants to get the desired effect.

Lesson 8 : Frustration = Errors

Another thing that i forgot to mention is blending. Since the paper is rough the charcoal is not applied uniformly you need some thing to make all that shade appear blended together. This is where something called a Tortillon is used. I dont have it with me i use some thing similar to that. I figured out how to use ear buds to remove excess shade. It is also useful to apply mild tones in places where you need (Previously artists used to use their fingers for this purpose which is highly inefficient). Save them for your next piece of art. Will post a detailed illustration later.

Lesson 9 :  Blend the shades together to make it look glossy and shiny.

As of now i am not fully equipped. Am still searching for rest of the charcoal art tools so will put a clear list of all items i have once i get them. Am like satisfied with the output thought is seldom looked like megan fox. Its like ok for first try.

To sum it up in one line. Apply charcoal every where and correct it with eraser.

Check the final result here :

http://rakeshtheartist.blogspot.com/2009/10/megan-fox-charcoal-art-11th-october.html

Charcoal - General experience, Difficulties

Since this is the first time I am using charcoal there are a lot of peculiarities I noticed.

1. Charcoal cant be used with polished paper. It needs a rough surface. I had to look out for a sketch book. And again either India is poorly equipped or I am ignorant about the places, it took a long time to locate a proper Art materials supplier. Finally found one in Chennai, Parrys corner, Giri emporium.
2. Charcoal needs more control. You cant even draw a straight line or a sharp line. It just gives you a wide line. Its not as flexible as graphite.
3. Charcoal pencils are difficult to sharp. Had a tough time sharpening my pencils, at one stage I even thought of continuing with charcoal sticks. Planning to get a mechanical or electric sharpener.
4. Getting the right tones. Charcoal has its own mind, kinda unpredictable. It does what it wants to do. You will never know what tones will come out of it. You need lighter tones to make the nose look 3d but it screws up everything by making it darker. Its however easy to do hair portions with charcoal.
5. Charcoal makes the entire setup dirty and clumsy, so be more diligent and organised.