Charcoal Drawing Exercise: Soft Volume
Friday June 27, 2008
Charcoal is often used for gestural drawing and lends itself well to expressive mark making. However its rich, velvety black tones can also be used for atmospheric effects and subtle value drawing. This charcoal drawing exercise encourages the use of a broad tonal range by beginning with a shaded background, and dispenses with outlining. Avoid using fingers for blending, as this forces the particles into the paper, dulling the surface, and the oils in your skin tend to 'fix' the charcoal, making it harder to erase. The pH of your skin doesn't do the paper any favors either. If you're having trouble getting enough layers on your work, try a light coat of workable fixative.
Comments
Helen, you’re a great drawing teacher. I’ve got a great deal more from these lessons.
I agree!
Thank you!
I agree with Pete and Starrpoint,your lesson are very very useful!
I’m so glad you find them helpful!
Helen, all your lessons are great.
Hi Helen,Thankyou soo much for your great lessons.I live in Saudia Arabia & here i cant take any lessons so i learn it myself, but i get much help from you now.thanks again.So is there any way to send my drawing to you so u can help me more.PLz.thankyou again
Barry – thanks!
Kinza – I’m afraid I can no longer offer individual tutoring to readers, as I was spending too much time writing personal emails and not enough writing lessons!
However if you post your drawing in the forum, I’ll try to take a look and our other forum members will offer their thoughts too. It only takes a minute to join and is free. See the link by my pic above.
I loved the lesson that you created. Setting down the mid-tone first is a great way to bring out the image. I tend to prefer buying paper that is already a mid-tone color (like newsprint paper, which looks like darker recycled paper), then adding the charcoal and finishing the image with highlights in compressed white charcoal. That is how I learned from one of my teachers at my college.
I think I only prefer this because it is less messy.
Great instructions though, and I love the images, they are very helpful.
Hi Anika! Working on coloured/tinted paper is great – something I’d like to do some lessons on – but it does have a slightly different effect. I really like the atmospheric quality that toning with charcoal creates, and being able to lift it off, the greys stay ‘true’ – if you use white and then change your mind and blend, you get quite dull tones.
But yes, using coloured paper with dark and white can really look amazing. I think it helps us reserve white for the highlights, putting everything else ‘down a notch’ in tone, which more closely reflects the way we really see things than when we are using a lot of white paper.