CHARCOAL
Charcoal is one of the most versatile drawing media available, capable of rich, velvety darks, easily achieved midtones, and subtle shading differences. It is an easy medium to learn, albeit messy—and there are ways to control that characteristic. A full range of tonal values can be developed much faster and easier with charcoal than with graphite. We have already discussed the term chiaroscuro, which describes the appearance of strong, high-contrast lighting on the subject matter. Charcoal is the ideal medium for creating a high-contrast, dramatic drawing that epitomizes the meaning of chiaroscuro.
Cast Drawing
In these first few techniques we will focus on creating chiaroscuro effects on white or off-white subjects, as this is the easiest and most direct way to view the play of light across a form.
A tonal drawing from cast sculpture is a great introduction to using charcoal to indicate the tonal range across a fully lit form. Cast sculptures can be found and purchased online, as well as from local statuary stores. Set the statue up in a semi-darkened room with a single strong light source. Light cast from a 45-degree angle is usually more dramatic than direct lighting from above.
Remembering that all good drawings start with an overall gesture sketch, begin by considering composition, placement on the page, size, etc. Small thumbnail sketches at the outset are a very valuable tool for composing and cropping the subject (A).
Once the gesture drawing is lightly sketched in, refine the drawing for accuracy with a chopstick, checking the proportion, creating an overall linear envelope around the form to understand perspective angles, and lining up structures horizontally and vertically. This initial sketch can be developed with vine or willow charcoal and then strengthened and refined with charcoal pencil. You may find it helpful to work on tracing paper, as you develop your skills, so that you can experiment with changes before committing them to your final piece.
Once the sketch is refined on tracing paper, it can be transferred to a suitable drawing surface by rubbing charcoal over the back of the sketch and tracing the contour lines to transfer the line drawing to the drawing paper (B). (For transferring review, see here). After transferring a clean sketch to drawing paper, it is ready for tonal development (C).
Demonstration: Cast Torso
The subject of this charcoal tonal development and technique demonstration is a cast reproduction of the Belvedere torso—a famous fragment of a human torso from the first century BC in Greece—from the Vatican museum in Rome.
Chiaroscuro depends on an understanding of direct light, transitional light to shade, core shadow, reflected light, and cast shadow. This is the lighting phenomenon that you see on the subject. Next let’s discuss the actual application of charcoal to create this lighting situation accurately.
This is the same lighting situation as above, with the exception of a dark background. This arrangement is more dramatic, and dark-value backgrounds are fairly easy to develop with charcoal, compared to most other drawing media.
Tonal Contrast
How we perceive the actual values of a subject depends on the contrasting relationship of values that are adjacent to it. The dark background for this cast statue creates more contrast between the subject and the background, as well as a low-key and dramatic lighting situation. Tonality is a relative situation, based on the effects of lighting and adjacent values. When you compare the statues shown here, you can see the relative differences in the appearance of the values, especially in the shaded areas—particularly the core shadows, which appear darker in the statue with the lighter background.
Use a variety of charcoal to create this scale from very light to rich, velvety black. From left to right: vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, and charcoal pencil, all blended with a chamois or tissue.
Tonal Techniques with Charcoal
Start with a value scale like the one above, using all the charcoal materials you plan to use in your drawing. In almost every tonal charcoal drawing, use the same tools (see above), usually in the same order, for the best results. It’s important to remember that using lighter to darker tools—and generalized techniques before details—is a key to success.
STEP 1 Tone the surface of white charcoal paper with vine or willow charcoal, stroking across the paper with the side of the charcoal. Then rub softly with a chamois or tissue. After sketching a small thumbnail in the upper corner, create an overall gesture sketch with a stick of vine charcoal, which is light, soft, and easily changeable. Use a chopstick for linear angles, horizontal and vertical alignments, and relative proportions within the torso.
STEP 2 When you’re satisfied with the sketch, go over it lightly with a hard or medium charcoal pencil. This step is important, as the soft vine sketch lines can disappear quickly as you begin to develop the tonal range.
STEP 3 Next begin to pull out the generalized lighting on the form with a kneaded eraser. Don’t attempt to achieve too much detail at this stage; it will likely disappear and need to be redone toward the end of the tonal process.
STEP 4 After pulling out the generalized lights, add in the overall shadows—the third value—with vine or willow charcoal.
STEP 5 About mid-way through the tonal application process, it’s a good idea to block in the background value, especially if it is a dark background. This makes it easier to judge the values within the subject. Try using a stick of compressed charcoal for this purpose, as it is darker and more permanent than either vine or willow charcoal.
STEP 6 Use a chamois to rub the charcoal into the paper for soft and even tone. Compressed charcoal provides a velvety, rich black. At this point, apply a light spray of workable fixative over the entire surface to help adhere the compressed charcoal to the paper.
STEP 7 Apply the finishing touches. Clean up and refine the edges with a kneaded eraser. Then use charcoal pencils (soft grade), to create dark core shadows and cast shadows on the form. You can use a stump or tortillon to smooth the darker surfaces. Finally, use a white charcoal pencil sparingly to accent the lights and create highlights. It is best not to blend whites, as it tends to muddy them; use the whites conservatively, and leave them alone.
Additional Subject Matter
Still Lifes
In the still life composition below left, the shapes of objects are fairly simple, but the arrangement is complex. By this stage in your drawing education, you should be ready to take on more challenging compositions. Give it a try!
As you progress, you’ll be able to approach more complex subject matter, with more value and texture contrasts.
Animal skulls—real or cast in plastic—are also good subjects for drawing white or light-colored objects, and they have a bit more texture and complex structure than cast statues.
Student tonal drawing by Yea Jin Shin. Notice how the artist used crosshatching very effectively, with both charcoal pencil and white charcoal pencil. Time: 4–5 hours.
Figure Drawing and Charcoal
The speed at which the artist can attain a full value range makes charcoal a natural medium to use for figure drawing. Charcoal can be used for 1- to 2-minute gesture drawings, as well as intermediate poses of 20 to 40 minutes and, of course, for tonal drawings of longer duration. When used on toned paper, the addition of white charcoal for lights and highlights can be expedient as well as dramatic.
This is a 1-minute student gesture drawing in vine charcoal.
Here is a quick study in black and white charcoal pencil on toned paper. On this middle-value paper, the paper tone becomes the middle value for the softer shadows and reflected light on the figure. The use of white pencil is limited, as it can too easily dominate the value structure.
Charcoal has been used for centuries by artists wishing to portray the human body with dramatic form, mass, volume, and effective tonality. Student charcoal drawing by De Tran.
Conté Crayon
Conté crayons were invented near the end of the eighteenth century in France, and they continue to be used today—especially for drawing the human figure. Their warm, rich tones of sanguine, terra cotta, sienna, and black lend a unique tonal quality to a drawing that few other mediums can. Though waxier than charcoal, with a claylike feel, Conté crayons can be used like charcoal. This medium has hard edges that can be used to draw fine, semi-permanent lines, and it also has superior blending capabilities. Conté crayons come in sets containing several different shades of red and brown, as well as gray, black, and white. They are a very versatile and tactile tonal drawing medium that every serious drawing student should try.
Conté crayons typically come in a variety of earth tones historically related to the color of the soil in different parts of France. They contain a waxy binder that gives them a silky, smooth application and appearance. This range includes a very dark brown (bistre), as well as a very light, reddish orange (sanguine).
Copying the Masters
A great way to improve your drawing technique, with any medium, is to copy a Master drawing, working in the style of the Master artist. Working with the same tools and in the same style and line quality as the Master artist, you will learn to bring that type of quality, and perhaps spontaneity, to your own work. Conté crayon and charcoal are excellent media for replicating the type of tonality and line work used by the Masters.
Masters’ reproduction drawings are a great way to be introduced to the techniques of the chosen artist. This is a reproduction of a page of anatomical drawings from Leonardo da Vinci’s sketchbook on anatomy.
This is an interpretation of da Vinci’s work in sanguine Conté crayon and Conté pencil for detail. Conté crayons had not been invented yet in da Vinci’s time; he and other Renaissance Masters used various earth-based chalks and earth-toned inks.
This is a reinterpretation of the Sketch of Five Characters by Leonardo da Vinci. The student artist used bistre Conté crayon on cream-colored charcoal paper; the artist did not need to tone the paper with a chamois at the beginning of the drawing, as she intended to use hatching for value—just as da Vinci did in his original sketch. Student drawing by Pauline Huang. Time: 3-4 hours.
YOUR HOMEWORK
Your homework for this chapter is to create a tonal drawing of an old shoe or boot, preferably white (or painted white) for maximum value contrast within the form. Use the torso demonstration at the beginning of this chapter as a guide for the tonal development process.
EXERCISES FOR PRACTICE
In this book-and-coffee still life, the flow of parallel lines through the composition adds interest and movement to an otherwise simple scene.
STEP 1 Use a 4B to establish the darkest values on the shaded side of the book and the bottom of the saucer. Also use the 4B to draw in some of the page edges on the shadow side of the book, which will subtly show through later after placing a shadow here. In the cast shadow of the book, use the 4B to create irregular thick lines to represent the deep, weathered wood grain. Also add several dots for holes on the tabletop. At this point, save the background for a later stage, and think about how dark you wish to make it.
STEP 2 Continuing with the 4B, shade the dark side of the shadowed edge of the book, leaving a white area on each edge of the book cover. To shade in the pages on the shadow side and the shadowed area of the table, use the 2B and draw long strokes parallel to the earlier darker strokes.
STEP 3 Create the shadows under and around the cup with a 2B using a circular scribbling motion, which will match the texture on the book cover. Use the 2B over the white edges of the book cover on the shadowed side, allowing the darker strokes made earlier to show through. Then draw the small shadow cast by the book spine. Add more strokes along the pages, and then use the 2B for the dark strip on the cover. Resist the urge to blend right away in a drawing that has a lot of texture—you may or may not need any after viewing the finished product.
STEP 4 Scribble with a 2B on the remaining edges and front of the book cover, leaving thin, highlighted areas on the edges. Include darker patches as well. Use a 2B for the darker shadows and an HB for the lighter shadows that are created by the pages on the non-shadowed side of the book. There is no need to draw every edge of paper; the viewer’s eye will do the work.
STEP 5 Finishing the non-shadowed side of the tabletop, use a 2B and an HB to draw thicker wood grain and add the imperfections. Between the wood grain, lightly shade with the HB and blend with a tortillon. The table blurs toward the background as it moves out of focus, so use a tortillon dipped in graphite to create this texture. Create the lighter areas and imperfections of the wood grain with a sharpened pencil eraser. Use it to bring out some of the lighter areas on the surface of the book cover.
STEP 6 Work on the background wood before the cup. Use a 6B for the dark wood grain. Make it thick, and don’t worry about getting it perfect. Then go over the entire background with a 4B using horizontal stokes, making sure they are visible. Notice that one side of the thick wood grain is shadowed, which gives it a raised, weathered look. Use the 6B on these areas.
STEP 7 Use 2B, HB, and F pencils to shade the various shadows on the cup, and then use both a tortillon and a tissue to blend. Finish the drawing by using a kneaded eraser to pull out some graphite to create the imperfections on the background.