charcoal question..

[xxlee]

hi im new to this forum i dont know if this is the right place to ask this... but anyway heres a stupid question..


Ive taken lil bit of art class and learned some basic of drawing with charcoal just black a white.. the teacher didnt ever seem to let us use pencil first before using charcoal...


so the question is.. is it okay to use pencil to kinda of sketch out an image first, before applying charcoal? for example a portrait drawing..

[Dilated]

What the teacher is trying to do is help you draw without the urge of using a rubber, it helps you be more spontaneous and draw more effeciently instead of rubbing out every line

hope that helps :)

[xxlee]

thanks... so is that mean that is ok to use pencil first for a more serious piece of art work.. ?

[sweetoblivion314]

they are two different mediums. They tend not to be used together. Graphite is somewhat metallic and reflective. Because of this charcoal wont hold very well on thicker layers of it. It is also harder and easier to score the paper with which can be seen when you layer a coat of charcoal over top.
For preliminary sketches of longer charcoal pieces I would advise soft vine charcoal sticks or HB charcoal pencils applied with the lightest of touches. you can sharpen them to a long tapered point so you have more control over the quality of your sketch lines.

[Musselfarmstudios]

I really don't see any problem with starting out in basic pencil before hitting it with charcoal. If your using the pencil to do some basic contour lines to get the shapes nailed out then it won't really be an issue if you use pencil, vine charcoal or a charcoal pencil. But if you go with pencil it doesn't matter how heavy handed you may be in that the lines will dissapear under the charcol once its laid out.

One of my favorite techniques is to rub the paper with some charcoal then smear it with a rag of some sort creating a nice medium value and then taking an eraser and doing a quick structural layout that way.

The best thing for you to do is actually try out all these methods and see what works best for you.

[reneeisorym]

If it's going to be a charcoal, start with vine charcoal to sketch it out. I think you'll learn to love that method if you give it a chance. I was resistant at first too.

[CCThrom]

Speaking purely from my personal experience, I don't like sketching with pencil under charcoal. Unless you have a really light hand (which I don't) the pencil will leave score marks in the paper. I just found it distracting. Still, it's worth trying since you may like it. I'd advise a very soft pencil, like ebony, and light pressure.

Actually, in general I'd advise trying just about anything you can think of technique-wise... you may find a combination that really works for you.

Forgot to mention... I second the call for vine as being the nicest general-purpose charcoal.

[k4pka]

With good paper, and a putty rubber, charcoal (unless its the deathly awful compressed stuff) can be moved around pretty indefinately. Meaning you can place in tones, change them, move them, erase them at your hearts content.

This should lead to the pencil start being completely unneccesary. This allows your work to flow much more simply, starting and finishing with charcaol.