Pencil & Charcoal Drawing

The traditional drawing medium of charcoal is a favorite for many artists. Charcoal produces rich tones and high contrast. It is easily blended and erased allowing the artist to produce a variety of effects in an artwork. Charcoal is manufactured in a variety of forms as well. Vine charcoal produces softer marks that are easily removed and blended, while compressed charcoal produces darker tones. Sketching with charcoal is a lot of fun because it's so freeing to make big, sweeping movements across your paper whilst getting messy. In this tutorial I'll discuss the basics of sketching with charcoal, from choosing which type to use to showing you how to tone your paper. We'll cover the tricks of making your subject pop off the page and getting a nice range of value in your sketch. Pencil drawing is where most artists and students begin, exploring form and shape with this simple graphite tool, which provides the comfort of being easily corrected by an eraser. Drawing is one of the most important skills an artist can be proficient at, and Jerry’s free online art video lessons in pencil provide a wealth of drawing instruction! Our free art lessons feature professional artists and illustrators, teaching the latest techniques and tips on topic from perspective drawing, shading, figure drawing, cartooning, using grids, and more.