Plaster Cast Drawing in Charcoal.
For this demonstration, the plaster cast shown here will be used to create a tonal drawing in char-
coal. This is the first time that charcoal is used in the drawing examples in this book.Charcoal has some benefits and some drawbacks compared
to drawing in graphite. One benefit is that charcoal is gener-
ally considered similar to a painting medium, because it
remains fairly loose on the paper and can be easily manipu-
lated and blended. Also, because of its extreme blackness,
you can achieve a full range of tones from the darkest dark
of the charcoal to the white of the paper. A drawback of
charcoal is that because it is so changeable and easy to
erase, it requires a more delicate touch than graphite to con-
trol. After the drawing is completed, it is also susceptible to
smearing.
There are three grades of charcoal: soft, medium, and hard.
All three were used in the following drawing examples, and
explanations of the benefits of each are provided.
Using Charcoal