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This is often the go-to paper for charcoal drawing and other dry media. However, it is fairly thin, so it can tear, pinch and buckle under strong pressure. Newsprint is affordable and comes in a variety of sizes. Because it can remove stray marks and pick up extraneous (and inevitable!) charcoal dust to enhance highlights in a drawing, a kneaded eraser is a constant companion of charcoal. Paper for charcoal drawing should not be so delicate it won’t stand up to being abraded with a kneaded eraser. To select the best paper for charcoal drawing, you have to keep in mind the characteristics of the medium, as well as what you desire out of the drawing as a whole.īecause charcoal is not a precision implement like, let’s say a sharpened graphite pencil or ink pen, the best-suited surface for it is one with a lot of texture, akin to pastel boards, that will pull a lot of charcoal to its surface. Like graphite, charcoal comes in degrees of hardness and can also be found in pencil form. Thin willow twigs are charred for other smaller scale applications. Large vines are singed down in an airtight environment to make bigger sticks of charcoal. Ĭharcoal is made from slowly charred wood.
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Want more great charcoal drawing techniques? Enter your email address in the box below for a free video tutorial on Charcoal Drawing Lessons. And, it’s often recommended to use spray fixative with charcoal to lock the medium in place. It is not associated with a delicacy of mark-making the way graphite is. The medium itself is known to inspire spontaneous and gestural marking as well as soft edges and smudging.Ĭharcoal is a dry, dusty medium and tends to fly around on the page in a way that isn’t terribly controllable.
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You can get rich dark tones out of it, with plenty of high contrast.
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For the purpose of this article, you’ll discover guidelines and tips for how to choose the best paper for charcoal drawing, in particular.Ĭharcoal is a highly reversible drawing medium. These are the questions artists should ask as they embark on choosing a paper for drawing. Is the artist after fine details? Or gestural marks that are fluid and loose? Should the paper be toned so the artist can add highlights and shadows to a surface that gives a consistent middle tone? Or is the artist more interested in the drama of dark marks against a completely white surface? Is it a study or preparatory drawing, mapping out ideas and experimenting with forms and composition? Is it a formal drawing in which every stroke is considered and choreographed?
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How a draftsman chooses a paper most often reflects what the drawing is meant to be or what it is being used for. Others, like newsprint, are not archival. Some papers, like Bristol board, are more difficult to erase from. All types of drawing paper have their own unique characteristics. Must-Know Information for Choosing the Right Paper for Charcoal Drawing Female Posterior by Benjamin Shamback, 2005, charcoal, 30 x 20.Īrtists have drawn on virtually every kind of paper every produced.
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