Charcoal For Drawing

If you plan to try charcoal for drawing, you must first equip yourself with proper materials. This means finding a high quality charcoal such at Nitram Charcoal as well as the right paper and tools. When choosing Charcoal For Drawing there are two most commonly used forms, charcoal stick and a charcoal pencil. Each serves a different purpose, and if you want to be able to create a wide range of lines and shading in your work, you will need to have several of each.

Why Stick Charcoal For Drawing?

With the vast array of charcoal pencils on the market today, many who are new to using charcoal for drawing wonder why they need to buy a stick charcoal such as Nitram Charcoal. Charcoal sticks come in a wide range of sizes, allowing you to use them for an incredibly diverse array of elements in your work. Not only can you make use of this range of diameters, but also you can sharpen the tip on a piece of sandpaper to any size and shape you need for shading.

One more major advantage to using a charcoal stick for drawing is that you can "erase" it. As long as you are not overly heavy handed while you work, you can gently wipe the charcoal off the paper in much the same way as you would remove chalk from a blackboard. The only thing left behind will be fine and very light grey line, one you can easily blend into the rest of your picture.

What About Charcoal Pencils?

Nitram Charcoal

          Nitram Charcoal

As with sticks, there are definite uses for charcoal pencils when drawing. Pencils come in H, HB, and B levels of hardness. Unlike stick, these pencils can be sharpened in much the same way as you would sharpen a regular graphite pencil. This gives you the opportunity to create an extremely fine point to work with.

While charcoal pencils are perfect for adding in the fine details in your picture, they are also much harder to erase. With this in mind, you need to be far more careful with how and where you use them. Most artists will use stick for the bulk of their work, and then use the pencils for adding in the final details. As with the charcoal sticks, you can still use sandpaper if you want to shape the tip to achieve certain effects. To get the best results, you should keep a wide selection of both types of charcoal for drawing in your art box to allow you to achieve multiple techniques and give you the most flexibility as you work.