From the article: Charcoal Drawing FAQ
Charcoal drawing is an important part of any art student's portfolio - whether it's tonal studies for painting or hours of figure drawing. It's pretty hard to be ambivalent about such a strong medium - most people seem to either love it or hate it. Or maybe you're one of the few in the middle? Tell Us Why
Charcoal & Subtractive Drawing
- Thank you! I've been following your blog because your charcoal work blows me away, and when I met compressed charcoal & subtractive drawing last year, it was LUV. (messy love. I always get hands that look like that, though not yet *results* anything like that.)
- —Guest kCMdySwiL
i'm not sure...
- I've been given a charcoal set and don't exactly know what to do with it...
- —Guest kid
Maybee....
- I do love using charcoal but i find that i learn new things everytime.... im not finished with charcoal and i dont think i will ever be but i wish i could find a class central to charcoal so i can become amazing with it :)
- —Guest GladOS Artist
In the Minority Again
- I'm one of those who remain ambivalent about charcoal drawing. I love the look of pieces done (by others) in charcoal, but I hate the mess... not to mention that I've not yet managed to do anything noteworthy in charcoal myself. Perhaps, someday, if I can get past my distaste for the media, I might be able to do something worthwhile with it.
- —Guest Lady_D
LOVE IT!
- I love charcoal. I love the texture of it (as well as pastels) more than anything else and the deep rich blacks I can get with charcoal. It's messy to work with, but two towels, one wet to clean my fingers with and one dry to dry them off with really helps keep the mess under control.
- —Guest HorseDorf
Love thoose charcoals
- As a self taught artist I have always love using charcoal. It is amazing how simple it is to us and the tones are unlimited when used in a drawing
- —Guest RussSmith
Love It
- At first I hated it but took a class and the teacher introduced us to charcoal and now that is all I want to use.
- —Guest Cheri Homaee
learned it!
- its awesome....it makes everything real...u can find and draw a lot of discription evn tho it makes ur hand blck!!!
- —Guest wowzeee
Love It
- Used charcoal in my drawing class in college. My art looked amazing using vine and compressed charcoal.
- —Guest purplemama
Love.
- My mother is an artist, and when i was small, I would just pick up charcoal and rub it against paper, not making any patterns or pictures. Now, I still love it just as much; it's still my favorite for drawing.
- —Guest you'llneverknow
love it but...
- I used to hate charcoal because of my misunderstanding of its use. After taking some time to read up on how it is used and the many ways to apply it I began experimenting. I use a variety of dry media now and charcoal is a mainstay. Along with vine, willow, and compressed pencil charcoal I use Wolff's carbon and Conte Pastel Black. Using all of these in a drawing allows for so much more depth and realism. I use the powdered charcoal for making my own transfer paper with any art quality tracing paper. All in all once you gain a respect and understanding for the stuff it can and will take your works to the next level of realism. I admire the works of J D Hillberry and it is what I strive for every time I touch a pencil to my paper.
- —Guest dragonrider
Love at first stroke.
- When my teacher first introduced me to charcoal I fell in love. My very first drawing looked so beautiful and felt so natural for me that I continue to use it most to this day. Charcoal is my forte. :)
- —Guest TT
i love it
- no matter what you do as logn as its made iwht charccoal it seems to always look good and thus i love it, it makes amazing drawings look perfect.
- —Guest modler2
Hated it, then loved it!
- When I first tried it, it was just a big mess. I kept going back to it but there was nothing I could do to improve it. Then one day I picked it up and it was so much better then any pencil. I found out the amount of detail I could get with charcoal and that my drawing time was cut in half with this amazing medium! It just took time getting used to it.
- —Guest Kelly
I Adore Drawing with Charcoal!
- I am a fine artist working primarily in black and white (BAW), my preferred medium being charcoal pencil. I particularly enjoy the way the charcoal moves, and the rich blacks it produces on smooth white paper resulting in highly contrasted imagery. Please visit my web site at: http://www.caroltaylorblackandwhite.com/drawings/the-tulipa-series for a gallery of my artwork. Carol Taylor Black and White "Not Everything is Black and White"
- —CarolTaylorBAW
Charcoal, love it or hate it
- I used to be one of those who hated it, everything about it from the mess to the smell! But I have learned to get used to it, not be so heavy handed with it (that got rid of some of the mess) and to use charcoal encased in wood rather than straight vine charcoal. So now I would say I have developed a somewhat offhand respect for it, if not an actual love of the stuff!
- —coastalcutie2000
Learning to Love it.
- I used to hate charcoal. Messy and hard to use, but as I am becoming more experienced I am starting to really get into it and learning to love it.
- —StarrpointHost01
