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Charcoal Drawing Techniques – How to Draw with Charcoal

Charcoal is generally obtained from wood which is burnt or charred in the absence of oxygen, so that what is left is an impure form of carbon residue. But have you ever thought that charcoal can also be used for drawing purposes. Read on for some of the charcoal drawing techniques.

Before we get on to know how to draw with charcoal, let’s understand what exactly is a charcoal drawing. A charcoal drawing can be defined as, ‘The use of charred sticks of wood to make finished drawings and preliminary studies.’ – Encyclopedia Britannica. It produces an intense and a very dark, velvety black line. Unless some form of resin or gum is applied, charcoal as a medium easily tends to get smudged or erased which makes it perishable. This special characteristic of charcoal is used in wall murals outline which is either drawn directly on a wall or on sketches. It is also used in roughing the outline of a large painting on canvas which is further completed by using something which is more permanent such as oil. It is often used by the artists to have a quick replication of a preliminary idea.

The edge of a charcoal is soft and that is why charcoal tends to prefer broad, robust drawings. It gives emphasis on mass and movement rather than on the fluidity of the lines. An artist can freely draw and make changes in the drawing, since charcoal particles usually tend to fall off from the canvas. Some of the renowned charcoal artists of the 16th and the 17th century are Albrecht Durer and Paulus Potter. It continued throughout the 19th, 20th and the 21st century with notable names like Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ernst Barlach and Kathe Kollwitz.

Charcoal Drawing Techniques
For more effectiveness and ease, charcoal drawing should at first be done with a medium sized charcoal. You can simply use your finger or paper towels to rub off any part of the drawing. Shading, merging, highlighting, toning, etc. are some of the steps that are required in a charcoal drawing. So it is important that you should have proper charcoal drawing supplies. They are mentioned below:

• Paper: Select a white, thick paper with a bit of texture. It should not be too smooth, else the charcoal will not stick to the paper. The paper should also not be too dark, otherwise the detailing will not be done properly.
• Vine Charcoal: Vine charcoal is an uncompressed charcoal that is easy to erase. It is also called willow charcoal.
• Compressed Charcoal: These look like graphite and come either in pencil or stick which is soft, medium or hard. The soft ones are darker, while the hard ones are lighter.
• Kneaded Eraser: These erasers are soft and bendable so you can knead them into any shape. Kneaded erasers are good for creating subtle changes.
• Gum/White Erasers: These erasers are comparatively harder. These are good for revealing white highlights.
• Blending Stumps: Blending stumps are also called tortillon. They are good for blending in smaller details.
• Paper Towels: These can be used for blending large areas. These are also effective for rubbing vine charcoal sketches.

Tips to Draw with Charcoal
Start off by setting up your workstation. Remember working with charcoal is a dirty job. In order to keep it clean, put some newspapers on your working table. Now, you can get ready to learn as to how to draw with charcoal:

• Take a paper and cover it with charcoal. Be careful not to leave any white spots.
• Take a good black and white photograph or even a portrait if you are a beginner. Turn the picture upside down to lend your own imagination and uniqueness to the drawing. Just try to give some basic highlights of the face since you don’t have to replicate the image.
• Rub off the outline of the head with an eraser.
• You can start with the eyes. Be careful not to place them on the top of the image, since you will also have to draw the hair.
• In the photo, start finding the places that are the lightest. Erase out those areas completely. Apply less pressure as you go on rubbing out the areas.
• Work on the details with a charcoal. You can also erase out additional areas.
• Now you can start erasing the area that is supposed to be the hair. Try to follow the patterns of the photo.
• Erase out the other areas besides the portrait. Fill the outline that was white with the charcoal.
• Your portrait will be ready by now. It may not be the best of the portraits, which means that you will need more practice. You can try some other pictures which include fruits, vases or flowers. Be careful to pay attention to the lighting and technique.

When you have completed these, you can try to draw intricate images like trees, streets and houses. Follow the same technique. Now that you have learned how to draw with charcoal, it is important that you follow a few safety measures. Try to work on a well-ventilated room. Wash your hands after working with charcoal and never put them in your mouth. With these few tips and techniques, your charcoal drawing is sure to be appreciated by all.

Drawing Lessons – Learn How to Draw

Anybody can learn how to draw. Use the drawing lesson given here to begin unleashing your creativity.

When you see a skillfully made sketch or a good drawing, what comes to mind first? Most people are usually filled with awe immediately, thinking wistfully how nice it must be to be born with a gift like that. However, it is not necessary that you need to be born with the ability to draw. Like any other means of communication, drawing is a skill that almost anybody can learn. For example, just like the skills of writing are acquired by first learning how to construct simple sentences, and then developing the skills of communicating ideas or thoughts using complex forms of writing, anyone can use the basic skills taught in drawing lessons to learn drawing. This can then be developed further to draw and even paint complex subjects or ideas.

You can use a variety of tools to begin learning to draw, such as the lead pencil, charcoal, color pencils, wax crayons, pen and ink, and these days even digitally. Once you learn the basics, you can unleash you creativity by going on to experiment with various styles like sketching, cartooning, illustration, caricature, and also abstract and representational rendering.

But first, let us begin with the basics. One of the most important aspects of creating realistic objects is learning how to draw 3-dimensional shapes. If you look around you, you will find that anything that you want to depict on paper with your pencil is made of basic shapes, such as rectangles, squares, cones, and ellipses. By using 3-dimensional drawing techniques, you will be able to create these shapes so that they seem to project right off the page.

Here are a few steps you can follow to begin your drawing lesson:

Step One – It Begins With Observation:
One of the most important aspects of the technique of drawing is observation. Unless you learn how to see, it will be difficult for you to draw the objects around you successfully. The fundamental aspect of depicting any form, tone, color, or texture starts with your eyes. Only when you have the ability to observe and recognize these factors can you simulate them with your pencil on paper. For example, the computer monitor in front of you is made up of rectangular shapes, so is the table on which it rests. Whenever you begin a drawing project, consciously seek the object’s hidden contours and shapes.

Step Two – Learn The Lines:
Once you learn to see the various shapes of objects, start by learning to draw lines, which are any drawing’s basic building blocks. Lines can either be rendered visually or just implied by using spaces. There are three basic types of lines that you will use to render any object, these are: the straight line, the curved line, or angled lines. Therefore, familiarizing yourself with these lines is an essential component of learning how to draw. Hence, practice drawing these lines, first only by themselves, then creating simple objects with them, to begin improving your drawing skills.

Step Three – Get Your Perspective Right:
Perspective, as far as drawing is concerned, is about using the rules of geometry to represent objects on paper as they appear in reality, which is that they seem to become smaller and bunch together the further they are from your observation point. By using the techniques of perspective, your drawing will become more realistic and visually correct. When you master the rules and skills of depicting perspective, you can even increase your creative skills, because it allows to explore innovative concepts in the perception of depth in your drawings.

Step Four – Get The Right Shade:
Shading is the key to making the objects you draw appear 3-dimensional. Before you begin shading, you need to determine where the source of light is in your drawing. For example, if the source of light is on the left of the object, the right side will get the darkest shading, while the left will get the lightest.

For example, say you want to draw a ball. First, make a round shape on your paper. Then, say you decide your light source is on the left side of the ball. Begin shading from the lower right side of the ball, using curved shading movements with your pencil. As you approach the top left side, keep making lighter strokes, until the shading is barely visible right on the top portion of the left side. Smudge the shaded area, either using you finger or a stump of paper, to smoothen the shading.

Step Five – Add A Shadow
The final step of giving form to your 3-dimensional object is to add a shadow. Whenever there is a source of light falling on an object, it creates the shadow of the object on the opposite side. Observe well how the shadows of objects appear when light falls on them. You will notice that the shadow will always be an elongated version of the object. Plus, the stronger the light, the sharper will the shadow be, and conversely, the weaker the light, the more diffuse the shadow. Also observe how shadows tend to disappear at the furthest point from the object. You can use the same shading techniques given above to create shadows. Go ahead, give your ball a shadow, and see how it comes alive!

Cartoon Drawing Tips

Cartooning is way of finding one’s creativity and expressing it through this medium. Here are some cartoon drawing tips that can help you get started with ease.

Cartooning is such an art that does not always require you to be taking lessons from any art school. Since my childhood days, I have found myself going through all the comic strips and comic books, fascinated with the kind of drawings and line work used. Such was my fascination that I translated my own versions of the cartoon characters on the walls of my house. This was an obvious statement to whoever visited my home, that somebody from my family deeply loved cartoons! Despite my mom’s incessant yelling’s, I could never stop myself from picking up the crayons and doodling all over the house. If you find this story quite similar to something you have already experienced in your childhood days, then you obviously have an inclination towards the art of cartooning.

Cartoon drawing is fast growing as a very lucrative profession today. People who may chided you for cartooning on the walls or opting for it, as a career option, would be eating their words by now! Cartoon drawing in very much in demand especially in the print media. This is one such profession that can let you have complete fun whilst you work! Perfect cartooning skills need to be imbibed with time so that you can create and establish a style of your own. As a beginner, you can also opt for courses or seek guidance from an experienced art teacher. Apart from this, you would also need to hone your skills by referring to works of great artists as well. Check your local bookstore for books on cartoon drawing. Apart from this, you can also check out some cartoon drawing tips mentioned below.

Cartoon Drawing Tips:

When you often ask yourself what is the perfect way to draw cartoons, remember, its all about creating your own style. For this, the first and foremost thing I would recommend is the use of the pencil and paper. Your skill should lie in translating your thoughts on the paper; the computer can follow only later. A computer is only a tool, your skill lies within you. Making use of different grades of paper can also help you to have different effects. A textured paper can help to create variants in shading.

Practice makes a man perfect, and this definitely holds true. Begin by drawing things around you, simplify the lines and try to get the basic structure right. Once you can manage the structure, modifying it to suit your thoughts will be really easy.

All the three dimensional shapes should be translated effectively into two-dimensional figures. You must take into account the line work that would be needed to translate the 3-D image successfully into a 2-D image. This would require you to analyze mentally all the shapes and proportions.

You can also use images from magazines to study and draw the same on paper. Although, drawing from realistic objects is a better bet, you can also use your old magazines to improve your cartoon drawing skills.

Cartoon drawing does not mean that you have to complicate things. Simplicity is the keyword out here! Simplify your lines and concentrate on your line drawing. You need not focus on details you do not need. Remember to keep the shapes simple and free from too many details.

Cartoon drawing is about expressing your thoughts and feelings, many a times in a humorous way. Learning how to draw cartoons is not just about good drawing skills, but also the amount of wit you use in the same. A sense of humor would also help in making your cartoon look more appealing.

While drawing cartoons, apply a light pressure on the pencil. This will reduce the use of the eraser because; all you need to do once the drawing is finalized is darken the lines again. This will also help you avoid smudging your paper all over the surface.

Cartoon drawing is also not about a realistic representation of what you see. Here, you would need to exaggerate to get the desired results. This is your blank canvas; let your creativity flow. A little bit of exaggeration can give you amazing results.

Always remember one important thing about carton drawing; you are learning something new at each and every step. This can help you to master this art form in a perfect manner.