Even then, not everybody feels comfortable using one due to their potential hazards.ħ. Older students should always be supervised and receive instruction on their use. You can also buy Pastel Pencil Sharpeners that are specifically designed to cut at a shallow angle to prevent their soft cores from breaking.Ĭraft Knifes are also a very efficient alternative but they are razor sharp and should never be used with young students. These have a small barrel for pencils and a large one that is ideal for sharpening sticks of blackboard chalk to a fine point. Sharpeners and Craft Knives: The best and safest tool for sharpening charcoal, chalk and pastel pencils is a double barrel pencil sharpener. They come in a range of thicknesses for both broad and fine work.Ħ.
Tortillons: These are compressed paper stumps which can be sharpened to a point for blending and graduating areas of charcoal shading. Titanium White pencils contain an opaque pigment which is better for bright highlights while Chinese White pencils have a more transparent pigment that is suited to softer effects.ĥ. White pastel pencils are more refined than blackboard chalk but also more expensive. It is hard and opaque and may be sharpened to fine point for detailed work, but it can also be applied expressively and smudged to create soft and transparent effects. White Chalk and Pastel Pencils: We find that ordinary school blackboard chalk is the ideal medium for applying the light tones to a charcoal drawing. The lightest ones, which contain less charcoal, are harder and better for drawing cleaner and sharper lines.Ĭonté crayons, which now come in a wide range of colors, were traditionally manufactured in black, bistre (brown), sanguine (red) and white tones and are a medium that we associate with many drawings from the 18th and 19th centuries.Ĥ. The darkest crayons are soft and smudgy as they contain more charcoal pigment in relation to binder, making them more suitable for bold, expressive drawing.
They are available in the form of round or square sticks which come in light, medium and dark tones. Charcoal and Conté Crayons: Charcoal crayons, originally called Conté crayons, are composed of powdered charcoal mixed with a wax, clay or gum binder. As they can be sharpened to a fine point and are less messy than 'vine charcoal', they are more suited to the detailed drawing techniques that you associate with traditional pencil drawing.ģ. Charcoal pencils are available in three grades, light medium and dark, providing the artist with a wide range of tones. Charcoal Pencils: These are a compressed form of charcoal which is bound with clay and encased in wood to form a pencil. It is a brittle medium which produces a dark velvety line that smudges easily, making it ideal for shading techniques.Ģ. 'Vine charcoal' comes in various thicknesses and densities, hard, medium and soft, which offer the artist a range of dark tones. Charcoal Sticks: These are often referred to as 'vine charcoal' and are usually made from charred twigs of willow wood. In our image we have laid out a standard range of materials that you could use for drawing with charcoal and chalk.ġ.
It is often used in combination with white chalk on a neutral colored paper to extend its tonal range.Ĭharcoal and chalk drawings stand on their own as an independent artistic genre but the medium is also used in a supporting role to establish the under-drawing for oil or acrylic paintings. It is available as ‘vine charcoal’ which comes in the form of charred sticks or as ‘compressed charcoal’ in the form of crayons or pencils.
Charcoal is a versatile medium that can be used in an expressive drawing style or with a more detailed technique suited to naturalistic art.