Compressed Charcoal Videos for the Arts North West Micro Grant

 

These two videos show how I build up darkness with compressed charcoal and below is the finished drawing. Compressed charcoal is much darker and richer than ordinary charcoal and extremely messy so use newspaper or a drop cloth under your easel. It will also make your hands very black. If this could be a problem I suggest using a disposable rubber glove. The charcoal will wash off with soap and water but it takes a bit of scrubbing. 

 

Some artists use a mixture of compressed charcoal, charcoal pencil and graphite in their work in order to get really dark areas. I am still experimenting with cross hatching graphite into areas of compressed charcoal in a way that gets a believable blend, the drawings below show such a work in progress.

Videos of knead-able graphite.

Here are two videos I made of myself trying out a product called knead-able graphite. It is very messy but lots of fun. These were my first videos and I didn't think about actually talking about the product while I used it. The materials were purchased courtesy of a micro grant supplied by Arts North West.