HOW TO DRAW
•Sharpener
•Plastic eraser- Jakar Compressed
Charcoalstick - General’sCompressed
Charcoalpencil
•Craftknife - Jackson’sPointedRound
Series 505 brush,size 10 - Winsor&NewtonPointed
Washbrush,size 12
•CeramicDaisypalette - FabrianoAccademia
200gsmpaper(notpictured) - WillowCharcoal
(notpictured)
DEMO 1 TREES
IN CHARCOAL
PENCIL
A tree without its leaves is an exercise
in negative space. While the branches
might be the obvious “subject”, it is
those trapped spaces of sky that you
must draw in order to make sense of
the repeated splits of trunk, bough
and twig.
In this demo, I wanted to suggest
something of the papercut flatness
that you experience looking up at a
distant tree silhouetted against a light
sky, so I drew the tree as a shape,
rather than a three-dimensional form.
1
The willow charcoal under-drawing
provided a pattern for the
application of wet media – I started
with the sweeping arc of the top of
the tree to encompass the gestural
shape of the leafless canopy before
drawing in the rough shapes of the
spaces between the branches.2
Wetting the paper with clean
water I drew over the outline of
the branches with a compressed
charcoal pencil. The water dissolves
the binder in the compressed
charcoal, darkening the mark itself
and allowing some of the charcoal
to spread in the water to create
a deep, black, soft-edged line.3
While the page was still wet,
I applied dabs of the pre-mixed
charcoal solution to the branches.
The inconsistent makeup of the
solution caused it to spread in
unexpected patterns, partially
restricted by the barrier of the
compressed charcoal pencil and
drying to leave the kinds of
reticulations that are often
associated with lithographic
tusche washes.Jake's materials
Top tip
Turn to Sketchbook
on page 12 to see
Jake demonstrate how
to make a charcoal
solution