Supplies for Charcoal Drawing

Series Summary

Charcoal drawing is often the foundation of any 2D art curriculum. Learning how to draw with charcoal teaches the artist how to understand light and form, and provides the basic knowledge and skills that can be applied to painting, ink drawing, and even computer-aided drawings.

In this series of free videos you'll learn how to draw with charcoal from a professional artist. Expert Kristine Mueller shows you what types of art supplies you'll need to get started, including various types of charcoal, compressed and pencil varieties, types of erasers that work best with charcoal, and the best types of paper for making charcoal drawings. She also shares tips for avoiding smudges, blending techniques, adding highlights, and using Fixatif to protect your work of art.

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Kristine Mueller thanks for joining me at Expert Village. Today I'm going to show you how to start drawing with charcoal. It is really fun and a little bit messy but here is what you are going to need; first of all you will need some charcoal and you can get vine charcoal or charcoal pencils. Which I would tell you more about later. A erasers, some paper towels, a drawing board, some charcoal paper which I would also tell you are little bit more about a little later and a still life which I would also tell you are little bit more a little later. A still life that you are going to draw as well as you can use a clip on light or if you have another great light source. Like natural like is good also that is great. Then you also want to have either newspaper or some sort of protective covering for your table. Because you will get charcoal on yourself and probably your surroundings as well. It really tends to crumble and also I would suggest wearing dark or black clothing that you don't mind getting smudge on. Okay so let's get started. "