Charcoal Practice

One of my favorite discoveries a few years ago was charcoal pencils. I loved how much depth it added to graphite drawings and the strong contrast that could be created with it. It was also relatively easy to control, being in pencil form.

Yet up until a few months ago, I had never used a charcoal stick. I knew it could be very messy and less precise and was hesitant to try it. My first time using a charcoal stick was when I went to practice drawing people at a park and I did a couple with the charcoal.

Recently I've been wanting to experiment more with it though, so I tried sketching a few different subjects from observation. The first was the tower outside our window on the hill. It was a cloudy, foggy day, and I thought the messy charcoal would capture that effect well. For the sky, I laid the stick on its side and rubbed it across the paper, making some parts darker than others. I then rubbed over the whole sky with a tissue to blend it and give it a foggy effect, and then I used an eraser and circular motions to lift out some of the charcoal from some areas.

Next I worked on a smaller scale, sketching one of my plants in the flower pot I made. With this I had to be slightly more accurate with the stems and shapes, and I practiced more control over the charcoal sticks. I also spent more time and attention on the shading as it had to be more accurate to be able to differentiate between different parts of the plant and pot.

Lastly, I decided to challenge myself by doing a portrait. Drawing a person from observation has been challenging to begin with, but I wanted to push myself and see what I could do using a charcoal stick. I drew my dad, and though parts were a bit off, it resembled him much more than I expected. This one also got me a lot of practice with precision and shading with charcoal sticks.

Overall I've enjoyed working with charcoal sticks so far! I hope to explore the medium even more to see what I can do with it and what effects I can achieve with it.