Basic 102: Class 4 - WILDLIFE IN CHARCOAL

[Zarathustra]

WILDLIFE IN CHARCOAL AND CHALK

Greetings folks. For those who don’t know me, I’m that little avatar stuck perpetually at the top of our great little forum: the eye of Horace, the purveyor of all things art…Okay you got me, I’m merely a mod, greasing the cogs of our little forum from behind the scenes, along with our fantastic array of mods, guides and members.

Our great maestro JayD, the true sage amongst us, has asked if I can take the running of this class. In my usual last minute style, not helped by a recent accident (I’ll just say I’ve a new found respect for Stanley knives, and thank god I can still count all 10 digits!), I’ve fashioned together a class in the good old medium of charcoal and chalk. From the pre-lesson introduction by Jay, it seems some of you are ‘scared’ of charcoal; I’m not entirely sure why, but I hope by the end of this tutorial I will make it one of your new best buddies.



THE SUBJECT

Normally I draw portraits more than other subjects, with particular attention to eyes, eyes being the defining feature that makes or breaks a piece of work. This time I wanted to put a spin on the portraiture side of things, so have gone for the intense gaze of an owl.
The photograph on which I will base this, is by a Matthew Hull, with license rights for usage in commercial projects.

Of course, if you’re prepared to give the medium a try, by all means choose any subject matter you like, it’s really only the techniques and medium I want to demonstrate here, subject matter is largely inconsequential.

THE MEDIUMS

Paper
I’ll start with the paper. I’m using Canson mi-teintes, which is a fantastic paper for pastel drawings, and therefore responds pretty well to charcoal and chalk. One of the bothersome things about pencil drawing, is starting on a white surface and building up all your tones without any real reference to values (unless you have one of those graduation value charts from white to black). A tint gives you an instant mid-tone, which means now all you are primarily concerned with is shadows and highlights – the interesting interplays of light, without which nothing would be worth drawing.

Vine Charcoal
Charcoal is amazing stuff. It’s incredibly versatile, remarkably cheap, is fantastic for the beginner, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, but also lends itself as a beautiful professional medium which can create the most detailed of drawings if so desired.
If you’re relatively new to art and have so far been endeavouring with a pencil, now’s the time to pick up some vine charcoal – not only will you love that childhood sense of making a satisfying mess (vine charcoal is mucky stuff!), but the freedom of movement is expressed in its bold strokes. There’s less need for nitty-gritty details, instant blacks can be made just like that, it’s extremely blendable so you can instantly remove those abundance of hard edges, and it is easily corrected and erased. Need I go on?

Vine Charcoal Powder
I’m always looking for ways of saving time, and a great way to do this is to grind down some vine charcoal on a piece of sandpaper, and keep it in a little pot. I used cotton wool balls, dabbed into my powder and then dabbed onto the paper to very quickly build up some very soft layers of tone. It’s used in much of the owl’s feathers which can be put together in minutes if not seconds.

Charcoal Pencil
Not strictly necessary. I will be using it very infrequently in this demonstration, but the pencil can give you a little more accuracy and sturdiness, and is often a little more compressed and slightly harder to remove or correct than vine. A sharpened piece of vine charcoal does a very similar job.

Chalk
Very similar to the charcoal. I have this white chalk in three forms: in a stick, which is a little like using the vine stick charcoal, but less brittle – it’s much easier to create broad sweeping movements with the medium in this form. I also have the stick ground down into powder and using a dedicated piece of cotton wool (don’t mix the blending tools used for charcoal with those used with chalk, as you risk contaminating your whites). Lastly I have the chalk in pencil form, although strictly speaking it’s a Faber-Castell Pitt pastel.

Cotton Wool Balls
As mentioned above, I prefer to keep one ball for black charcoal and the other for the white chalk. Sometimes I will blend with my finger, but fingers lift a lot of the charcoal – cotton wool gives a very delicate touch, which is great for smoothing edges, or laying down initial areas of tone if dipped into the powder then dabbed onto the paper.

Blending Stump
This is a common blending stump. I use one end for charcoal and the other end for chalk – it’s better for reaching smaller more detailed areas. Although I am using blending tools, be careful not to overdo it, and blend everything you see.

Putty Eraser
This takes up the charcoal very nicely, and you can either use it as a corrective tool for any mistakes, or as a drawing tool, to mark say areas of feather (in the case of our owl), or to lighten tones which I used for the iris of the eye for example.

[Zarathustra]

DRAWING

My personal approach, although it will vary from drawing to drawing, is to focus on one area – draw that correctly before moving on to the next area. The eyes are the unmistakable focal point to this drawing, and it is where more time will be taken, and the hardest edges added to contrast against the softness of the feathers.
It was Richard Schmid (alla prima oil painter) who switched me onto the idea of creating one part of a drawing that is drawn accurately and carefully, because once you have that, you can use it to measure and build out upon for all other parts of the drawing or painting.

Vine charcoal is very forgiving, so if you lay down some lines that seem to be in the wrong places, you don’t even need to reach for the putty eraser – a clean finger will remove most of it.

I begin by drawing the most dominant eye of the owl. The vine charcoal breaks up a little over the texture of the paper, and goes down very black. To achieve lighter shades and values, blending is the best way to go, either a finger, tissue, cotton wool, stump etc. will take the edge out of the blackness to give you any graduation you need, and will also fill in the paper’s honeycomb texture.
Once I mark in the eye, I take a cotton wool ball and with the lightest of touches take out all those hard edges until I’m left with something very soft. I then re-evaluate the photograph, determine where the darkest darks are, or the hardest edges, and proceed to put them back in. Some of the chalk is used to put in some of the highlights, and I also use my putty eraser to break up the even tone within the iris itself which is reflecting elements of the world beyond.

With my focal more or less complete, I’m not looking for competition by rendering each and every feather (not only because of the time involved), what I want is more of an impressionistic technique. The cotton wool does this job supremely well and extremely quickly. Dip the cotton wool into the powder, dab onto the paper and follow the tones to some degree as seen in your source photograph (or even better – work from life; perhaps not with wildlife though, as they have a tendency for not staying put!). The more powder on the cotton wool, the darker your values. The more you dab at your charcoal, the lighter your values. You can always use a clean part of the cotton wool to further lighten areas, or simply use your finger or an eraser. Once the soft tones of the forehead are in place, I use the white pencil in little flicking strokes to suggest some of the feathery strands that capture the light.

The adjacent eye is created in the same way as the first, but it is less in focus, so I blend a little more and ensure there are no hard edges. If you’re wondering what is a hard edge? Here’s a simplified explanation: Imagine a cartoon. You outline an entire object or character, whether it be Mickey mouse or a Pokemon creature, with a line. You can do the same with drawings and it may suit your style, but too many of these hard edges really pull in the eye and can be distracting if overdone. Stick with many soft edges, and just a few hard to suggest the outline of a form, and if you strike the right balance, you end up with a much more interesting drawing.

Take a quick field trip to find out more about edges, both hard/soft and lost/found:
http://www.sovek.com/publications/ar...edge/index.htm

The lighter areas are added in the same way as the dark. I use a piece of cotton wool, dipped into my white chalk powder and dab it onto the paper. To increase the intensity of the whites, either the stick or pencil is used.
Once the eyes are completed, the rest of the drawing is done within a matter of a few minutes solely using the cotton wool dipped into the powders and applied to the paper to create very soft areas that might suggest feathers. Just here or there, I will add a little flick from the charcoal or chalk pencil to put subtle edges to the feathers.

And there you have it! They may generate a little more mess than your average pencil, but without a doubt charcoal is quick easy and fun. The biggest problem is storing your finished drawings. If you can get hold of some glassine paper, I would cover your charcoal work with that. If you’re in a country where glassine sheets aren’t so easy to obtain (like here in the UK), tracing paper seems to do a very similar job. You might also consider buying fixative and giving it a light spray, although don’t expect fixative to protect your drawings by itself – I’d still recommend the glassine or tracing paper to lay over top whilst in storage.

[Zarathustra]

FIELD TRIP

Finally some links that may be of some use:

Combining charcoal and graphite for realistic drawings:
http://www.jdhillberry.com/how_to_draw_pg2.htm

Drawing with charcoal and brush:
http://www.artgraphica.net/free-art-...raw-people.htm

Charcoal and pastel, shading fruit
http://www.teachartathome.com/Shadowsandshading.html



I shan’t be setting any assignments, but I’d really encourage all those who have kindly taken the time to follow the class, to go buy some vine charcoal. It’s super cheap, as is cotton wool, and if you’ve never worked on tinted paper I’m sure you’ll enjoy the experience. I’ve yet to see an art shop that does not supply tinted paper suitable for charcoal, or you could place an order next time you’re shopping online!

[Mary Woodul]

Gavin, a magnificent write up! I am so excited about your class and now reading about white chalk made me jump with joy because I have a set of a 12 pencil tin of Faber Castell Pitt pencils and didn't know how to use it.

I'm off to find my subject!

[Judi1957]

HOOT-HOOT!!!! I just love these Classes.
Thanks so-o-o-o much Gavin!

Your demo drawings are FABULOUS!!! Going to read your write up.

[Zarathustra]

Thanks Mary and Judi!
Mary, does your Faber Castell Pitt pencil collection include some earthy reds? I love drawing with these ones.

Off to hit the pillow. Getting late here in pommy land.

[Anita Murphy]

Gavin - FAB class!!! WOw you make it look so easy and I'm sure its not. I need to go dig through my paper supplies and see if I have any coloured ground. Can I do somthing simple like a piece of fruit first?????

[pugdoglover]

w00t cant try this class out..
i have to hurry and catch up lol
Good job!

[Judi1957]

I think this will be my subject - he is so adorable -have been holding on to him for a WDT-but I think he is on call here.
I have some toned paper made for charcoal-so I will use that. I have some Mi-Teines-but seems to be lost at the moment.

I like that idea Anita

[mauricar]

I'll call my suppier tomorrow morning and get some vine charcole. I have the mi-teines. This really looks like fun.

[Mary Woodul]

Originally Posted by Zarathustra

Thanks Mary and Judi!
Mary, does your Faber Castell Pitt pencil collection include some earthy reds? I love drawing with these ones.

Off to hit the pillow. Getting late here in pommy land.

Yes Gavin, the tin does have the beautiful earthy reds, a brown and a dark grey. Some say Pitt Pastel and others say Pitt Oil Base.

Do you sharpen these, with an exacto knife? I used the charcoal one once, tried to sharpen it and it started breaking.

I have my reference!

[JayD]

Gavin, Bravo--a super demo to be sure--I appreciate you taking on this class!!

[Robin Neudorfer]

Of course, if you’re prepared to give the medium a try, by all means choose any subject matter you like, it’s really only the techniques and medium I want to demonstrate here, subject matter is largely inconsequential.


Does this mean we can do something other than wildlife? Would a still life be exceptable? Or an interior view with light and shadow?

[Katherine T]

Gavin - in the UK I order my glassine online from Heaton Cooper http://www.heatoncooper.co.uk/ - you find it under pastel grounds - which is in the paper and grounds section. They're very reliable suppliers who pack well.

[impetuous]

Wow! Great class and a beautiful drawing of the owl, I love the soft finish that the charcoal/chalk has given it.

A few questions,
Is there a difference between willow and vine charcoal or does it just the name and depend what country you are in?
Cotton wool buds ...do they work as effectively as cotton balls or are they too harsh?
The paper (mi teintes) ...I have no idea what it looks like and it's something that I don't think I will be able to get hold of, I do have some pastel paper in a mid tone but it seems quiet harsh/textured ...is this what the mi teintes is like?

Cheers