Lisa Eaton—Art Educator: Studio Material Exploration: Charcoal

I had some charcoal pencils from when I was in undergrad. I had 6 different hardnesses and one white. I went to Michaels to get a pad of Strathmore tanned toned mixed media paper with a vellum finish. This was $14 and worked well for my experimentation. I also purchased some vine charcoal at Michaels for $15 and a kit with some tortillons, kneaded eraser and sandpaper pad for $11.

These were my materials.

Some of my charcoal pencils needed sharpening. I used a handheld metal pencil sharpener to sharpen the brown bodied General's pencils. I had 4B Soft, Ex. Soft, and 2B Medium of these. I had Medium, Hard and Extra Soft Berol pencils with the black body and string wrapper. The sandpaper pad worked well for sharpening these.

I had different thicknesses of vine charcoal--thin to very thick.

The pencils are a more controlled line while the vine charcoal is a little more loose and free.

I started kneading the eraser for when I would need it, being carful not to hold it too long where the oils in my hand would rub off. I started with playing around with different lines, smudging and erasing.

I decided to draw a liqueur bottle I had in my kitchen.

When using the vine charcoal it did not leave too much residue on my hands.

The chamois cloth helped with residue getting on my fingers.

I really enjoyed working with the different values of the hard and soft pencils and how they glided over the vellum finished paper. The tortillon blending tools and chamois cloth helped with the shading of the bottle. I enjoyed the richness of the black of the charcoal versus regular drawing pencils or graphite.

This was my experimentation with lines with and one object with charcoal. Below are examples of some artists who have worked in charcoal then and now as well as some of my undergrad charcoal work.

Research

Here is a small brochure on teaching charcoal to elementary students by Lindsay Labramo. I thought that working with abstract shapes was a good start. It is less intimidating for students when they don't have to draw a representational object, especially if their drawing skills are still developing.

https://issuu.com/labramo/docs/lindsayabramo_-_elementary_art_less_3c616857e269f4

I found this site for a Montessori school where young children created rubbings with charcoal:

https://www.montessorinature.com/charcoal-drawing-process-art-for-kids/

I believe for elementary school that charcoal can be used for K-6 grade students. The dust should not be inhaled, rubbed into eyes or ingested. It is not toxic. With the right guidelines before starting a project, it can be a very fun medium for students.

Charcoal Artists

Toulouse Lautrec

1864-1901

French Post-Impressionist