A Charcoal Sharpening Demo: The Classical Way
Greetings fellow Steemians!
In this post I thought I would share a quick demo on how I was taught in the atelier to sharpen charcoal for drawing in the classical approach.
First of all, I would recommend getting yourself some fine tooth sandpaper, about 120 to 150 works pretty well. I would then cut the sandpaper to about 5” x 7” in size and glue or tape it to a board of the same size. It doesn’t matter what it’s made of really (wood, plastic,mdf), just so long as it keeps the sandpaper’s surface rigid. In my case I just ended up super gluing it to a piece of foamboard.
As with most ateliers around the world, the top choice for charcoal is definitely the Nitram brand. This is the brand I am also using in the demo. If you choose to use another brand, that is okay it’s just that this brand in particular is tailor made so to speak in having the ability to accomplish the needs and goals of drawing in a classical atelier.
For the degrees of hardness and softness, I would recommend getting a box of all three (blue-H, orange-HB, green-B), although I must warn you in that if you’re going to be doing a lot of figure drawing for example, you’ll be going through the blue grade a lot more due to the fact that that degree of hardness is the most helpful in rendering the subtle midtones of form.
(Here is a figure study drawing done using Nitram charcoal during my 1st year in the atelier.)
Jacob Figure Study
Charcoal on paper
18" x 24"
If you’re just starting out using the Nitram brand, or just charcoal in general really...it’s going to inevitable that you’ll break a few sticks. It really does take a little practice before you get the hang of it. Don’t be discouraged though as I can assure you that in using this stuff will definitely pay off!
I hope this was helpful.
Thanks for reading and watching Everyone!
-James Hansen
https://jameszenartist.weebly.com/