Painting with Charcoal, Origin and Ideas for Artists

CHARCOAL PAINTING

SHORT INFO. & HISTORY
Charcoal Painting is a new painting technique having diverse characteristics, that artists are adopting.

The history behind the charcoal use as painting media is very ancient and as per evidence charcoal drawing can be traced back at least 30 thousand years ago. The modern charcoal drawing began somewhere in the 17th century. One of the first well known artists to utilize charcoal as a primary medium was Albrecht Durer, Robert Longo, William Kentridge, Dan Pyle etc.

Credit to @ratulrisha

COMPOSITION
Charcoal sticks are manufactured primarily of charcoal powder such as burned willow or grapevine, and a binding agent, such as wax or gum, for use in charcoal painting. It is sometimes made without the use of binders by removing the oxygen from the charcoal powder during the manufacturing process.

Charcoal is a brittle, dry art media made of finely crushed organic ingredients held together by a gum or wax binder, or produced without binders by removing oxygen from the material during the manufacturing process.

SPECIFIC PROPERTY
Charcoal may produce exceptionally brilliant or strong black lines, but they are difficult to remove entirely. Using charcoal will allow Artists to explore higher contrast and allow to develop visually rich toned artworks. These charcoal pencils are popular among artists because to their versatile properties, such as a scratchy texture that leaves a less permanent impression than other visual art media.

KEY FEATURE
Because charcoal specially the powdered charcoal or charcoal stick is a dry media, it may be applied to practically any surface, from smooth to very rough. In charcoal drawings, fixatives are frequently used to harden the position and prevent dust from being erased or rubbed on the charcoal. Using white charcoal pencils or white powdered charcoal along with black charcoal is also provides more versatile output.

Credit to @pratiksha

SURFACE OR MEDIA
Charcoal can be applied almost any surface from smooth to very coarse, such as Papers, Woods, Canvas etc. But like the pencil sketching, the most used surface for charcoal painting is the paper.

MORE ABOUT CHARCOAL PAINTING
The quality of the paper used for charcoal might vary. For example, more charcoal is adhere to the rough texture paper and similarly for higher contrast , the charcoal is used with oil pastels.

For their artworks, professional artists use various forms of charcoals such as sticks, crayons, powder, pencils, and so on. Sticks, sometimes known as compressed charcoal, can be firm or soft, and depending on their hardness, they can produce bright or dark lines. Caricaturists developed and used charcoal pencils in the nineteenth century. Charcoal powders are used to make patterns and pouncing, which is a process of transferring patterns from one surface to another. Charcoal pencils are made of compressed charcoal that is enclosed in a hardwood jacket and are commonly used for fine, crisp, and detailed sketching.