Charcoal and Pastel

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing materials: people drew with burnt sticks on cave walls. It's fast, dark, expressive and wonderful for learning value and big shapes. Pastels bring the same energy to color.

Charcoal types

• Vine (willow) charcoal: thin, light sticks of burnt wood. Very soft and easy to erase. Perfect for the first block-in.
• Compressed charcoal: powder pressed with a binder into sticks. Much darker and less erasable. For deep darks.
• Charcoal pencils: compressed charcoal in wood. More control for details.
• White charcoal or white chalk: for highlights on toned paper.

Paper and tools

• Use paper with tooth (texture) that holds the charcoal: charcoal paper, newsprint for practice, or toned paper (gray or tan).
• Kneaded eraser: lifts charcoal and "draws" lights.
• Chamois, tissue or blending stumps to blend.
• Fixative spray to protect the finished drawing.

The subtractive method

A classic charcoal technique that trains you to see light rather than lines:

1. Cover the whole paper with a middle gray layer of vine charcoal, blended with a chamois.
2. Lift the lights with a kneaded eraser, like drawing with light.
3. Add the darks with compressed charcoal.
4. Refine edges: soft edges with blending, hard edges with a sharp eraser or charcoal pencil.

Drawing on toned paper

On gray or tan paper, the paper itself is the middle value. Draw the shadows with charcoal and the lights with white chalk, leaving the paper as the halftone. It's fast, elegant and teaches you to think in three values.

Soft pastels and oil pastels

• Soft pastels: almost pure pigment in stick form. Brilliant color, blendable, applied in layers from hard to soft. Use textured pastel paper; fix lightly.
• Oil pastels: pigment in oil and wax. Creamy, bold, don't need fixing. Can be blended with fingers or a little solvent.

Pastels are applied in layers: start with harder pastels or lighter pressure, finish with the softest pastels for the brightest accents.