Media: Charcoal

Charcoal: black, messy, and not a medium you would want to use while wearing your favorite light blue sweater. Yes, love it or leave it, charcoal is a very common medium used in drawing, and probably a medium that an art teacher or professor will make you grapple with sometime during your journey through the arts. I personally swore after my first encounter with charcoal that it was the bane of my existence and that I would never touch it again. Little did I know that I would decide to major in art in college and have to use it quite a bit more than “never again.”

In this blog, I’m not going to dwell on the logistics of charcoal (yes, there are “hard” and “soft” charcoals, and there are even different types of charcoal such as vine charcoal). Instead, I’ll talk about what you can do with charcoal and the types of processes you can use when drawing with charcoal.

First of all, the type of charcoal you use will greatly affect how your piece will turn out. Using compressed charcoal will create amazing areas of rich darkness, but is harder to erase. Vine charcoal is easier to erase, but it won’t give you a rich black like compressed charcoal will, and its also much easier to remove from the page even if you put fixative on it. I prefer using compressed charcoal because I really love to play up on the contrast by pushing the dark areas as dark as the charcoal will go.

There are three different drawing processes that you can use if you are, say, drawing a still life. One process is the traditional process of drawing the basic outline of your subject and then filling it in with lights and darks accordingly. The others are not quite as simple. One is called “additive process”. This is when you start with your lightest lights (such as the highlight that can be found on that lovely bowl of fruit), and you work your way to the darkest parts of color by simply adding darker and darker shades as can be found throughout your subject. The next process involves taking the charcoal of your choice and creating a “toned ground”. This basically means you put charcoal all over your page to make it a nice medium gray tone. Then you take your vinyl eraser and your charcoal and erase and add charcoal according to where the lights and darks are in your piece. This is where choosing your charcoal comes into play. As I mentioned before, vine charcoal is easier to erase, but compressed charcoal lets you bring stunning contrast into your piece. I would suggest playing around with the different types of charcoals first if you don’t know exactly how they can be manipulated.

A word of warning when using charcoal: Don’t wear nice clothes. As I’ve mentioned before, charcoal is always very messy and after using it, you’ll find it in places that you’d think were impossible for something that you hold mainly in your hand (a few places I’ve found charcoal stains: in my hair, on my forehead, on my neck, on my shoulders… and the list only gets longer). Also, be prepared to scrub, scrub, scrub after using charcoal. Compressed charcoal is one of the most stubborn mediums I’ve ever encountered even when I’ve attacked it multiple times with soap and hot water.

In short, charcoal, although very messy, is a popular medium to use. Some love it, some hate it, and some, like myself, find that what was once an aversion slowly turns into a fondness. Charcoal can be a very fun medium to use, and is quite possibly one of the easiest, most malleable of the media.

Tune in next time to hear about the Conte Crayon!

Image found here: http://www.artsupply.com/alvin/catagory/Charcoals.asp

Media: Graphite

Today I’m going to begin a series of blogs about the various media used in drawing, since this information is very handy to have as an artist.

The first tool that is usually thought of when considering drawing is the pencil, or graphite pencil, as we artsy folk like to call it. Note that a No. 2 pencil is not the same as a graphite pencil. When choosing which pencil to use, a few things must be considered, namely, the type of marks that you wish your pencil to make. Let me explain: Graphite pencils come in different degrees of softness and hardness. “H” generally denotes “hard”, while “B” stands for “soft”. If you go into an art store, you’ll see a whole bunch of pencils that pretty much look the same, but are separated into different categories. They are separated by the hardness or softness of the graphite. If you pick up one of the pencils, you’ll notice that on the end of the pencil it may say something like “2H”. Okay, well since you already know that “H” means “hard”, you assume that this is a hard pencil. Picking up another pencil, you see that this one says, “6H”. Basically, to make a potentially long story short, graphite pencils are sorted, as I said, according to their hardness or softness. The number in front of the letter indicates how much of the hardness or softness there is. For example, 2H is softer than 6H, but 2B is harder than 6B. There is one graphite pencil that doesn’t stick to the number/letter rule, and that is the HB pencil. This is basically the pencil that is equally as hard as it is soft.

Now, I know that some of you may be thinking (as I once did), “what’s the big deal? Why can’t I just use one normal pencil?” Well, different pencils make different lines. The harder a pencil is, the lighter, thinner, and less easily erasable the line is. Conversely, the softer a pencil is, the darker, and thicker the line is. Softer pencils are also better for shading and blending, topics that I will cover in other blogs. So, all in all, the kinds of graphite pencil you use in your art counts! However, much of which pencil artists like to use best depends on personal preference. I am a 2B or 4B person myself, because I usually erase often and I’m a fan of shading.

Since I think I’ve said all there is to say about graphite, I’m going to say farewell until next time, when we’ll learn about Charcoal, the messiest but most malleable of the media.

Image found here: http://www.thisnext.com/item/4ECD02B4/CBA57999/Faber-Castell-Graphite-Pencils

Perfectionism

Today I've been doing some more work in my sketchbook. I like how it's turned out so far, and I'm excited to see what it will look like at the end of the semester! When I first began drawing, I didn't realize how much technique is involved in art. I also didn't know that there are actually six parts of light instead of only three. I also didn't know that it was possible to measure out an exact angle with only a pencil and an outstretched arm.

Since I had always nurtured the whimsical, imaginative side of my artistry, it was hard for me to start applying all of these technical methods to my art. For example, learning how to make a 50% gray tone and how to match tones when you're dealing with different colors. It's true that creating art requires a skilled hand, but it also requires an even more critical eye. I find myself having to pay attention to little things that usually go unnoticed, like the reflected light that is found in a shadow, or the minute differences in shade and texture that can be found in a still life.

I find that I also have to be very critical in my way of looking at what I am drawing as a whole. For example, someone who is very adept at drawing doesn't always create good works of art because they may be lacking in composition. Composition is something that I've struggled with as well. Sometimes where you decide to place a certain object in your drawing can make or break the entire piece. Even the smallest shift in the placement of object on your page could change the look of your drawing.

I guess it's a good thing that when it comes to my art, I'm a perfectionist!

Image found here: http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/mein-apni-favorite-hoon/