I was recently asked by a reader for information regarding charcoal as an art material, particularly as it compares with pencil. As I considered this question, I realized that is a very important and interesting subject. This review paper is the result.

Charcoal is probably the oldest, or one of the oldest, art materials. It was, after all, what our pre-historic ancestors used while drawing on cave walls! It's ease of manufacture and use make it an essential tool for all artists. Charcoal is an impure form of elemental carbon made by burning selected woods in anaerobic conditions (little or no oxygen), hence, it is chemically fairly simple and stable over millennia. While other art materials may have greater color saturation than charcoal, few will last as long!

The major disadvantage of charcoal is its tendency to "dust-off." Not a problem when drawing on cave walls, where there is little air-movement to blow it off, but certainly an important issue if you want to display it in your home! During the many millenia between cavemen and modern times, charcoal was only used for preliminary sketches, and then painted or drawn-over with substances that can withstand a greater amount of physical handling. Only fairly recently, as people have begun to frame drawings behind glass or spray them with fixative, has charcoal recovered its earliest use as an expressive medium in its own right.

The joy of using charcoal as a drawing medium lies in its spontaneity and sensitivity. One can make marks with it which are very painterly, as if with a brush, or one can make fairly technical drawings. Fluid, painterly drawings are best achieved with the softer, richer crayons, whereas detailed drawings are best with harder ones, especially charcoal pencils.

Graphite pencils are, in my opinion, more limited than charcoal in terms of the range of values they can create. Graphite can rarely achieve as dark a color as charcoal, and it has the undesirable tendency to become shiny upon repeated application.

Graphite is actually a much more pure form of elemental carbon than is charcoal. Its amorphous crystalline structure gives rise to its special properties. Modern graphite pencils are scarcely ever made of pure carbon, however. Instead the graphite is ground to a very fine powder and mixed with clay, and then fired, to create a matrix which is strong enough to withstand the physical distress of drawing. (This is similar to how pastels are made.) Often pencils are also impregnated with some wax to improve their smoothness. Obviously, the quality of a pencil is determined by how much, and what kinds, of clays and wax are used in proportion to the quality graphite.

An important difference between pencil and charcoal is the *feel* that each medium has. Pencils, whether graphite or charcoal, tend to encourage the artist to adopt a more technical and accurate drawing style. Charcoal is so fast, direct and responsive, that it is amongst the least inhibiting media. It can produce bold and fluid lines, and a great host of textures (depending not only on the artist's mark-making style, but also on the paper), as well as subtle gradations for shadings. All three drawing techniques can be used with charcoal: contour drawing, gestural drawing, and volume drawing. Contour drawing consists of the drawing of the outlines, and some internal lines, to define the form of the subject. The lines can vary in thickness to express shadow or strength. This method is also the basis of most Chinese Ink brush paintings. Gestural drawing is best compared to a scribble drawing. It does not much concern itself with a rigorous representation of the subject's form, but rather seeks to express motion and/or emotive qualities. Volume drawing consists almost entirely of shading to produce a chiaroscuro effect. Few lines are usually used in this method, although the appliciaton of many lines, as in a cross-hatch technique can also be used.

One can, of course, combine these techniques for a more personal or unique result. In fact, the extremely soft nature of some charcoals can feel as if you are painting with it! The three basic drawing techniques described have their equivalents in painting. Indeed, one often hears reference to a particular piece of artwork with a "very painterly approach." This terminology is actually used to refer to the fairly spontaneous "gestural" technique in drawing.

One of my favorite ways to loosen up after a long winter of limited opportunities to paint out-of-doors is to use charcoal in the following manner. I start with a soft, but moderately dark piece of charcoal, and draw on a medium-toothed paper. This is mostly a "scribble" drawing ("gestural"), where the softness of the charcoal allows me to nearly "paint" with it. I work quickly and cover the paper in a very short period of time. Then I get out my pink eraser and use it as were "negative charcoal," painting with it in nearly the same way that I drew with the charcoal. First I paint some highlights, using the gestural style and relying on the paper as the white. Later, as the eraser becomes increasingly dirty, it becomes even more useful, as one can use it to achieve gradual shadings by repeatedly blending the charcoal. If the drawing begins to look too muddy, it is easy to restore freshness by doing more gestural drawing with the charcoal. One can work back and forth in this way between charcoal and eraser to achieve a final result which is a very finished and fresh looking, often fairly detailed. Yet, it is achieved entirely by gestural drawing. I've never tried to sell a drawing done in that manner, but I enjoy it.... it's very messy and fun! It also cleans up easily and, as I said, it loosens me up a lot.

One can do the same thing with white chalk and black charcoal, but it is harder to get subtle shadings and keep it looking fresh. A common problem with this is that the white of the paper looks different than the white of the chalk. Or, if the paper is gray, it is rarely the same gray color as would be achieved by mixing charcoal and white chalk. Never-the-less, this is an excellent warm-up exercise for pastel painting, and the approach is essentially the same as how I do my pastels.

Notice that this painterly approach is most similar to what one might do with oil paints, yet it is not very much like watercolor or Chinese painting. Those painting styles have more in common with volume drawing and contour drawing, respectively. Indeed, as I mentioned, Chinese paintings are much more like drawing technique than a painting technique. (An exception to this is the so-called "Impressionist" style of Chinese painting, which employs a much more spontaneous and explosive use of color and water.)

One of the joys of drawing with charcoal is that it is perhaps the only drawing medium which is capable of imitating a Chinese ink brush painting. As such, it is an excellent tool for practicing the style of these paintings. How can this be, you ask? Obviously the contour lines of a Chinese painting are easy to duplicate in charcoal, but what about the more explosive brush-work? There are too many of these effects for me to go into great detail, but let me give an example. In Chinese paintings, one often uses a brush which has been loaded with a gradation of ink... very dark at the tip, but almost clear at the ferrule. This difficult effect (which is quite unique to Chinese painting) can be imitated by using a very soft dark piece of charcoal, holding it on its side, and moving it along the paper such that the tip of the charcoal is pressed into the paper with greater force, while the part closest to your hand brushes the paper only lightly. Whereas Chinese paintings are usually done on the smooth side of the paper, an Asian-styled charcoal drawing should be done on a paper with a rough tooth.

One more note on this topic: If you choose to try to use charcoal as a means of learning the Chinese painting style, you should start by making every stroke *deliberate*! The loose, sketchy, scribble-lines which can be so exciting in charcoal drawings are simply not found in an Asian painting. This isn't to say that Chinese paintings are never loose or relaxed, but rather that a scribble line made with charcoal looks very different from a relaxed line made with an ink brush on rice paper. Also, painting with an ink brush on rice paper is much more difficult than drawing with charcoal....