Charcoal portrait: basic drawing tools and steps

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Drawing with charcoal has been known for a very long time. It has found wide application in painting. Traditionally, it was used to compose a composition before completing the entire work. Drawing portraits with pencil and charcoal requires some skill. However, there are differences, of course. The technique of drawing a portrait with charcoal is not very difficult, and even a novice artist can handle the process.

Use of charcoal in drawing

Charcoal was used as an artist's tool much earlier than the slate pencil.

It used to be used for drawing on thick paper. Such a pattern, called cardboard, was commonly used in the manufacture of frescoes. With its help, the composition of the fresco was composed before being transferred to wet plaster. The details of the drawing were applied to the cardboard, then it was pressed against the wall, after which they tapped with a bag of soot or sprinkled it on cardboard, which left black dots on the plaster.

Also, charcoal was used to create sketches, sketches andsketches.

Required tools

For drawing a portrait with charcoal, as a rule, are used:

• thin eraser;
• blend (paper stick used for blending and rubbing, paper towels can also be used for this purpose);
• charcoal pencil (or piece of charcoal);
• paper.

The paper with a rough surface is best suited for charcoal drawing. Since a regular eraser can rub charcoal dust into the paper, it is better to use a soft nag eraser.

Preliminary stage

The charcoal portrait technique includes several stages. First, you can make a light sketch with a pencil.

The first step in creating a charcoal portrait is to create a basic drawing that emphasizes the simple geometry of the head and helps to correctly fit the details into a single whole.

The next step involves adding dark objects and important details so that they are not lost during the drawing process.

Then there are large masses of light and shadow. There is no need to emphasize details at this stage.

Some artists like to start with the lightest areas and work their way up to the darkest. This technique involves the preliminary darkening of the background. To do this, using sandpaper, coal dust is applied to the sheet, and then gently rubbed with a paper towel. Coal dust is shaded in a spiral from the center to the edges of the sheet. After marking the highlights, the artist moves to gray, and thendarker tones. An eraser is used to reveal the main details of the sketch and lighten areas. Darkening is done with charcoal.

Detailed work with the pattern

After that, work with halftones and light begins. Hatching is performed around the contours to create the illusion of a three-dimensional, three-dimensional image. While the work is done without excessive detail. You should make sure that each tone conveyed in the drawing corresponds to the basic form. Some artists use their own fingers instead of shading, here the technique is not as important as getting the right tone in the right place. Pencil strokes, the use of fabric, brushes, whatever you can think of can be a useful method when drawing a portrait with charcoal.

Finish the pattern

At the final stage, the main points are added, the details of the drawing are refined. An eraser can be used here. You always need to compare highlights with each other so that you can judge their relativity. For example, the display of light in a drawing may appear very bright, in contrast to the dark shadows surrounding it. It should be taken into account, for example, that the light will almost never be as bright as the highlights on the cheek and forehead. Light and shadow values should always maintain the correct relationship between each other. Ignoring this rule will spoil all the work done.

Drawing with charcoal is a well-known skill. Very professional looking black and white images can only be drawnusing a small piece of charcoal and an eraser. Charcoal is also a good way to explore gray gradients. And lighting elements. When drawing a portrait with charcoal, it can be used on almost any type of paper.