Charcoal Drawing Techniques- How to Draw with Charcoal (Skull Drawing)

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What is Charcoal and How to Draw with Charcoal? 

Well technically speaking, charcoal is burnt organic material.  Usually the material is wood.  There are a few types of charcoal used by artists to create a drawing.  These types of charcoal include "vine" and "compressed". 

Vine charcoal usually consists of burnt willow wood. Vine charcoal is easily spread on a surface and is very easy to erase.  As a consequence it is generally makes a lighter mark when you draw than compressed charcoal and easily smudges. (Which may be a benefit.) Buy vine charcoal.

Compressed charcoal is held together by a gum binder and is darker than vine charcoal.  As a result, it is harder to erase, harder to smudge, but makes a darker mark.  Compressed charcoal may come as a round stick, a square stick, or in a pencil. (Vine charcoal is almost always a round stick.)  Some compressed charcoal is pigmented.  This is the case with white compressed charcoal. Buy compressed charcoal.

When charcoal drawings are finished, the artist may chose to "fix" the charcoal in place.  Because charcoal drawings are often very dusty, this is a common practice.  There are different types of fixatif.  There is workable fixatif which allows for some work to done on the artwork after it has been "fixed".  There is also final fixatif, which is used when the drawing is finished.  Most artists, like myself, chose to only use workable fixatif, since you may chose to go back to drawing and work on it at a later time.  Fixatif comes in a spray can and is applied by spraying it onto the artwork.  The best way to do this is in a well-ventilated area with the spray can held about a foot away from the artwork.  Hairspray can be used in place of fixatif but it can darken the surface so it is not recommended. Buy Fixatif here. 

Learning how to draw with charcoal is just like learning how to draw with any medium.  It takes practice.  So don't be discouraged at first.  Charcoal drawing is different than drawing with a pencil.  Most people are already used to drawing with a pencil, so it may take some time to become accustomed to charcoal.  But don't worry, you will get better with time.

In the following drawing video lesson, I show you how to draw a skull using vine charcoal, compressed black charcoal, and compressed white charcoal on gray drawing paper.

This video tutorial is a Charcoal Sketch of Skull.

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Charcoal drawings can be loose or they can be rendered to a high degree of realism.  Charcoal drawing is actually closely related to painting.  Because of it's characteristics, charcoal can easily be spread, blended, and erased.  This allows the artist to use the charcoal in a variety of ways.  One way of creating unique marks is by using the eraser to remove the lighter values (tints).  This method is called "Highlight Rendering"

Tools
When using charcoal to draw, a few tools will need to be at your disposal. First, you may need a variety of different types of charcoal- vine, compressed, pencil form.  You will also want to have a kneaded eraser.  A kneaded eraser is a special type of eraser that is designed to lift the material off of the surface.  Kneaded erasers work especially well with charcoal.  Buy kneaded erasers here. You may also want to have a blending stump.  A blending stump will allow you to have full control over the blending and smearing of the charcoal.  You can create a blending stump by tightly rolling up drawing paper to a point.  If you are drawing on a flat surface, it's also a good idea to have a paper towel handy.  You can lay the paper towel between your hand and the surface of the drawing, so that your hand doesn't smear your work. 

Here are some more art lessons that you may like...

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Composition in Art Part 1- Plato's Rule
Positive and Negative Space
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