Rearranging my Charcoal drawing tools in a new box

"Without good drawing, the foundation of a painting will collapse." Ken Danby

As mentioned in my last post I am getting back into my "Portrait drawing". So I decided to rearrange and organise all my "Charcoal drawing tools" in a new cardboard box ( This sturdy little box with one inch height came with ipad keyboard ).

Charcoal tools in a new box

This new box easily accommodates my basic drawing tools that I use on a regular basis. I keep the willow charcoal in a tissue paper as it smudges a lot and makes the whole area messy.

Prior to using the new box, my pencils and few other tools were in a very old stationery box which I have been using since probably 2000. The image of the same can be found below. When I got started with charcoal I used just about three to four tools namely Ambassador charcoal pencil, blending tools, charcoal powder and an eraser. So a small box was a pretty convenient option.

Old charcoal tool box

To view the images of all the different tools that I use in my present day drawings CLICK HERE.

I have also posted about the "Different papers" that I use for my charcoal drawings.

Thank you for browsing through my blog and if you are a person who is passionately into art, I hope that my blog and the information that I share is of help to you. 

The charcoal drawing tools used by me for my charcoal art

Charcoal sketching tools

I have been wanting to this post since long as it is a common question asked to me by all those who love charcoal art. The participants who attend my art workshop too have requested me to post this information on the blog.

Being a self taught artist I have experimented with a whole lot of different pencils and blending tools in the past. However over a period of years I have zeroed in on a handful of them and they have been in my charcoal tool box since then. There are a few paper stumps which are almost sixteen years old and I dread misplacing them. The older they get the better they are at blending. 

Basically the charcoal kit consists of the pencils, blending tools and the erasers and a fixative.

The paper stumps ( Old collection, almost fifteen years old )

Rolled up paper

The blending tools  or Tortillons ( New ones as available in the market )

Old soft cloth for blending

Tissue paper  also can be used as an alternative, to blend the 
charcoal on paper ( I normally use only the cloth )

Camlin charcoal pencil
I almost use it for all my charcoal drawings and sketchings

Conte a Paris charcoal pencil

General charcoal pencil

A normal eraser ( Staedtler )

Kneaded eraser ( Faber Castell or Cretacolour )

Very helpful to create the highlights and can be moulded into any shape

Willow charcoal ( Chinese brand )
I have Daler Rowney willow charcoal too but I find this
particular one very soft and it covers the paper
very uniformly as a base value.

Charcoal powder
I use if for creating the darkest values in my charcoal sketching.

Cretacolour Chunky Charcoal
( Sparingly used )

General's Compressed charcoal sticks

This has been with me since last year and only very recently

I have started using it. I find it pretty good.

Masking Tape
Masking tape is required to fix the paper
on to some hard surface or an acid free board
before beginning the drawing begins

Blade Cutter
I normally a blade to sharpen the pencils instead of using a sharpener
 as the tips break off easily. It leads to a lot of frustation
especially if the pencil is very expensive.

Winsor and Newton Fixative

There are lot of different brands of fixative's in the market

but somehow I have always liked the one as above.

Apart from all the tools mentioned above, I also keep sand paper handy as it helps me to sharpen the pencil tips when I need to do the details. And I also forgot to mention a simple HB pencil ( Any brand ) which is required in the beginning to do the initial drawing on the paper.

I have also written a post about the PAPERS that I use for my charcoal works and you can CLICK HERE to browse through it. I hope this post is helpful to all those who are into charcoal drawing and sketching. 

If you are into charcoal art work and if you use any tool other than what I have mentioned above, then please do write and share with me. It will be a pleasure to be informed.

Thanks a lot for browsing through my works.

Portrait study - Charcoal and white pastel sketching

"Even when you paint, you never stop drawing." Igor Babailov

My today's post is a portrait drawing on toned paper. The paper that I am using is Canson Mi Teintes. This paper has great texture and works good for me. It comes in many different colours but I love the dark gray a lot for my charcoal and white pastel pencil drawings like the one as given below.

For my present portrait drawing I have used Camlin and Conte A Paris charcoal pencil. For the lighter tones I have made use of General white pastel pencil. 

Portrait study work
Size 5"X 7"

Portrait drawing is a very challenging subject as compared to landscapes and others, however it is very satisfying experience too. 

Thank you for visiting my blog and you can browse through my works on my INSTAGRAM page too.

The twenty minute sketchings in my Travel sketch book

When I created my Travel sketch book it was with the intention of doing small study works without getting into too many details. However it so happens that as an artist one easily gets carried away to work out all the details. Hence I decided to time my study works so as to spend just about twenty to twenty five minutes on each of them.

It gets difficult though as there is always something to be erased or added. Nevertheless timing each work did help and given below are few of my Twenty minute sketches done in pencil and charcoal.

Three study sketches

created on Canson c a grain paper

The subjects chosen for sketching are random as I want to try out everything be it still life, nature or portrait.The first sketching is of a leaf which I picked up from some field and the sketching has been done using both graphite and charcoal pencil.

The next sketching is of a simple Forest scene where I have used willow charcoal in the background and then moved on to using Camel charcoal pencil in the next layer.

In the third sketching of the tree trunk I have used a black ball point pen initially to create the outline and the dark tones and later I have used both willow charcoal and Camel charcoal pencil to complete the work.

Diane Wright a graphite artist writes on Importance of sketching

"Sketching is the fundamental building block for an artist. It is used to develop a personal visual vocabulary. Sketches are visual exercises in problem solving."