Charcoal Art or similar?

[Calun the Bat]

i had some art I wanted to draw on a proper canvas, using black and white. I feel charcoal would suit the contents perfectly, but I've never used it for art before.


Has anyone here used it?


Or any other B&W tools that may get the same or similar effect?

[WingedZephyr]

Charcoal can be fun, but it is super messy. Make sure you cover anything nearby and/or don't touch anything you don't want to get the charcoal on. It gets on you, and there is dust that comes off that gets over everything else.

I did like using it though. Interesting medium.

As for other choices, there's pencil, pen, marker, ink, paint, pastels...

Ink is another really interesting one. You could even use tea if you want your greyscale image to have a brown tint to it.

[Ventus Fall]

Yes, charcoal is fun but can be very messy indeed x3
As for ink: We got a type of ink here called Indian Ink or 'Ecoline', I really like working with that personally ^^

[Ori]

If you're doing charcoal art, you should grab some blenders, vine charcoal and a chamois. (Chamois are for blending/ereasing, vine charcoal is loose and makes it easier to do some things. Especially like drawing loosely. And the blending sticks are you know blending sticks ) Why not attempt to use the hard charcoal to get a colored background? (And don't forget to use the chamois to blend the background if ya do. And you can layer the charcoal to make the background darker as well.) A kneaded eraser is very useful for erasing. And remember use the white charcoal sparingly, and try to erase instead of using it. The reason being the white charcoal is very like, opaque, compared to your paper and it makes it look a bit off. For this reason I used an automatic ereaser to get very white marks, without using white charcoal and after some practice you can get some very accurate and small white marks... (You can also try powder charcoal for making a colored background.)
And finally, make sure to get a can of that fixative spray and use it outside! Put down some layers if necessary!
Why do I know so much about it? Cause that's all I used in my art class in college last year lol.
Good luck!

[Calun the Bat]

Wow, thanks so much! That's really helpful. Maybe I'll just try playing around with it (and of course, the different methods and means of actually using it like you gave in depth, Ori ) and see how I like using it. I'm ideally hoping to get at least content with b&w with it, as the thing in question (a scene from a dream) was in black and white, and otherwise full greyscale.


All of that has been incredibly helpful and insightful. Is there a particular sort of thing I should be using it on, or would a standard sort of canvas be good? Seems like a normal canvas is good from what I know. Which isn't much. lol

[WingedZephyr]

Normal canvas should be fine. If you do use charcoal you will probably want to seal it after you're done so it doesn't get smudged or anything.

I always used newsprint paper, but I can't think of a reason why the canvas wouldn't work for you.

[Calun the Bat]

Normal canvas should be fine. If you do use charcoal you will probably want to seal it after you're done so it doesn't get smudged or anything.

I always used newsprint paper, but I can't think of a reason why the canvas wouldn't work for you.

Cool, makes sense, considering. Any suggestions on a sealer? I would be inclined to lean towards a spray, since brushing seems like it'd be a terrible idea. lol But then again, I've never used charcoal, so I can't say. Just an assumption.

[WingedZephyr]

Yep, some kind of spray. I don't have a particular kind to recommend.

[Calun the Bat]

Cool! Thank you. I'll pop by our Art Supply Warehouse and take a look, as well as asking the people there.