Charcoal Drawing Basics For Beginners

Preparing yourself for the real art.

First starting with tools. Charcoal painting have a velvety tone. It needs great effort from the side of artist to create a great drawing out of it. Coal can beautifully conveys the texture since old time it has been used for this purpose. It has a great pictorial possibilities in terms of the transmission of light and shadow, you can get a variety of shades of colors, allowing you to get a realistic image.

Picking up the right type of coal

Right tools in your hand : There are various tutorials out there telling you how to draw with charcoal but they forget to tell you about the main part of this work that is the tools with which you will be working on your drawing.

Forms of Coal :

Coal is available in various forms and is made ​​of several kinds of wood.  So you can't take any one for any type of work. The fine texture of willow wood is ideal for the production of charcoal. Rods with a diameter ranging from 4 mm to 10 mm are commonly used in the manufacture of rods to work on a drawing in a sketchbook size, while decorators proposed coal larger.



 

 

For more http://goo.gl/GP0fDF

 

White vinyl erasers are good to go  : Here is an good opinion from Yahoo answers :

 

 Erasers don't cost much so get what's called a gum eraser, a kneaded eraser and a soft white vinyl eraser. A gum eraser will be gentle on your paper but they are designed to break apart into little grains so if you are using charcoal, brushing the grains away will smear your lines. The kneaded eraser is a great versatile tool that you can mold and draw with but since it doesn't break up like normal erasers the particles in it cause it to smudge eventually. Soft vinyl erasers are good for small tight areas. In an art supply store ask for pencils with leads from grade B to 9B (medium-dark to very dark) with 9B being the darkest. 

 

 

Sharpening your pencil for drawing is also an art you can use a knife or a charcoal sharpner. As most of the charcoal pencils are wider than general drawing pencils it will be better to look for sharpener with wider holes. .Here is how to sharpen your pencil with help of knife.  http://goo.gl/YaEwfi

 

Chamois cloth for drawing :  This soft cloth piece is used for smudging in the drawing. It is good for lightening areas that have become too dark.