Charcoal Tips

Charcoal is probably my second favorite medium. It's a very messy medium and it's a lot of fun to work with. I love how you can choose to have it blend together smoothly or leave it rough looking and patchy. It has a lot of freedom with style as well. It can also be a very experimental medium.

Tip #1- Always make sure you have the right kind of paper. Smooth paper with little to no tooth is great for blending smoothly, however it's not good for charcoal. For a good charcoal drawing you need to make sure your paper has tooth. The tooth will hold the charcoal in place better and allow for an overall cleaner appearance.

Tip #2- Keep your paper clean! A smudgy paper does not look good! You can use a piece of copy paper or paper towel to place under your hand or arm that will help keep you from smudging it as you work. You can also work with an easel so your piece will be elevated. the elevation will help you to avoid leaning over it and against it as you work.

Tip #3- Be creative with your materials. You can use almost anything to blend your charcoal. You can use a stiff acrylic paintbrush, a paper towel, tissue, finger, cotton balls, q-tips, foam pads, kneaded erasers, blending stump, and so many more. My favorite thing to blend with is typically my finger or a blending stump.

Tip #4- Step away from your work. Up close everything may seem like it's going great but take a minute and step back. Step far back. Make sure you really look at your work. See if all the proportions are okay and that nothing's too dark. If something gets too dark you can use a kneaded eraser to pull up some of the color.

Hopefully these tips were helpful for you. Charcoal is a great medium and it's always fun to mess with. It can be realism or abstract. It all depends on you and what you want to do.