Charcoal “muddying” my paints?

[CharlesCM]

Hello everyone, I’m wondering if there is a way to keep my under drawing in charcoal from turning my initial layers to “mud”. I was concidering going over my drawing with an under painting in acrylic just to kind of “seal the sketch”, I’ve also heard of some people spraying the canvas with a thin spray of clear coat, advice on going that route?

[Humbaba]

You may apply India Ink (diluted) over your charcoal drawing, and lastly apply a transparent layer of a fast drying color. I normally mix a cool gray using Umber and Prussian blue and while wet rub the canvas with a rag to make the lines visible.

[CharlesCM]

alright thanks, I’ll give it a shot!

[Raffless]

Just buy some Krylon fixative spray. Clear acrylic coat that has no effect on upper layers when dry. Use outdoors though as it has volatile compounds. I use it for my framed charcoal drawings too

[Ribera]

I’ve employed a sketch (Need that, in fact, be created on
the paint-surface, and not have the consequential lines
transferred from the étude?!) underneath a painting:
What I’ve done was trace over the important lines in ink,
then erase all else – It does appear a pain in the ass to
have a bloody whole charcoal drawn’ beneath, though. . .
Fixative works, though. . .
r

[Gigalot]

I am second with Acrylic spray varnish. If you can’t get “Krylon” in your country, then automotive clear acrylic varnish is widely available and work fine.

[contumacious]

Isn’t a matte finish acrylic sealer better than a glossy one if you are painting on top of it with oils?

[kingsleysaxon]

Fixative used for charcoal and pastel and pencil
seals it adequately to stop smudging.

[Gigalot]

I can read on fixative bottle that it is made for watercolor, pastel, charcoal and pencil. But what about oil paint or acrylic paint? What about fixative formulation and what is a substance it is made from? :confused: :confused:
As for acrylic spray, then it is made from Acrylic. Acrylic is trusty for oil paint compatibility. :thumbsup:

[budigart]

I do a light charcoal (hard charcoal pencil) sketch first. Then, I strengthen this with paint . . . usually a mix of raw umber and yellow ocher, and keep the lines fairly narrow. I let this dry. Usually overnight will do it. Then, I go over it lightly with a kneaded erasure and start painting. Been doing this for years. Works every time.

[WFMartin]

I suggest that you do what I do–allow your charcoal drawing to “muddy” your painting on the first application. Then, allow that applied layer of paint to dry. Finally, apply a subsequent layer of paint. I guarantee that the second layer of paint will not be affected by the charcoal drawing.

Many of these clandestine, clear, “isolating” coatings of unusual materials have not been proven to be very sound in terms of durability, and I do my best to avoid applying such questionable materials to my drawing so early on in the construction of my painting.

The suggestion of covering the drawing with lines of oil paint is rather sound, however, and I often do that, as well. Allow those lines of paint to dry, and your charcoal will never contaminate any further applications of oil paint.:)

wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

[CharlesCM]

Thanks everyone for the input. I went out to home depo last night, found a can of krylon spray fixative sitting on an end cap (I was picking up lumber to mill a new set of stretcher bars, so guess I lucked out). I’m going to give it a shot.

I’m also going to experiment with the other suggestions. the diluted ink one particularly has me interested as ink is my preferred drawing medium, so if I can axe charcoal from the equation then that would be great. a bit late to experiment now with current project as I’ve already put oil to canvas, now I’m itching to finish it to move onto the next.

Either way thanks for the input.

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