Charcoal Drawings

Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing media and is commonly used by artists even today, in stick or compressed powder form. The sticks are usually made from twigs of willow (or linden wood) which are subjected to a slow-burning process that reduces the wood to carbon. Sticks come in varying thickness ranging from the very thick (used by scene painters), to medium and thin sticks (used for more detailed drawings). Bamboo charcoal is the main media employed by Japanese Sumi-e artists, (note: Sumi-e actually means charcoal drawing).

Other forms of drawing or disegno, include: Chalk, Pen and Ink, Pastels, Crayons and Pencil.

Portrait of Sergei I Shchukin
in Charcoal by Henri Matisse (1912)

Preparatory Sketches

Charcoal is often used by painters making preparatory drawings on the canvas, before adding pigment. This is because it is easily overpainted without affecting the colour or tone of the overlaid paint. Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist, used it to develop his drawings which he then overlaid with layers of soft pastel. An example of this is his Blue Dancers, 1899 (Moscow Pushkin Museum). Editing of drawings is performed very easily by means of a feather, a brush, putty rubber, or even soft doughy bread.

Woman Bathing in Shallow Tub
Charcoal and Pastel Drawing
by Edgar Degas (1885).

Charcoal Effects

Charcoal's major advantage is its versatility. It can be used to produce either a soft or strong quality of line, which can be erased without difficulty, or it can be dragged across the paper to produce different tonal areas, texture, and shading. However, drawings made with charcoal on paper are impermanent unless sprayed with a fixative - normally a resin dissolved in alcohol.

Available Forms

Charcoal is commonly obtainable in regular stick or compressed powder form. Regular sticks come in soft, medium, or hard consistency. The compressed variety, powder mixed with gum binder, comes in round or square sticks. This is used in charcoal pencils.

Draughtsmen Who Used Charcoal

By the 15th century (the Early Renaissance), charcoal was extensively used to prepare compositions for panel or fresco mural paintings. In the 16th century (the High Renaissance), cartoons - full-scale drawings - were transferred onto the support by pouncing charcoal dust through holes pricked in the paper. Michelangelo Buonarroti was one of many Old Masters who drew in this media (along with pen and ink, and red and black chalks): see for example his 'Study of a Man Shouting' (Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence).

• For facts about painting movements, styles and Old Masters, see: History of Art.
• For details of drawing/sketching in Ireland, see: Irish Fine Art

• How to Update This Mini Review of Charcoal Drawings