Drawing with charcoal is a centuries old art and very personal means of expression. Charcoal drawing is an expressive media that can be very special to create. Here’s a brief primer on creating your own charcoal portrait drawing.
Supplies you will need:
- Willow charcoal
- High quality drawing paper
- Putty rubber
Place a composition photograph next to your drawing paper. Then using basic willow charcoal, loosely begin to create the head shape of the subject. Don’t worry about putting down marks you don’t want because they can be easily removed.
Shade and shadow areas that are in shadow using short sharp stokes, then lightly shade the brighter areas. After shadowing and shading the dark and bright areas, use heavier stokes to darken the background areas. Blend the newly charcoaled areas in with your fingers making sure to keep the light and dark areas in balance. Also, blend in the background area for a complete blending effect.
Once the general tones of the portrait have been laid down, you can begin to plot out there the portrait details are. Remember that half way across the face is the line of the eyes. Place a charcoal line horizontally across this area and then follow up with a vertical line down the centre of the face which will place the facial area into balanced fourths. Then place a smaller line horizontally at the base of the nose, a line for the mouth area and one at the chin area.
Darken the eye socket area along the first main horizontal line shadowing it downward toward the second horizontal line along the nose continuing downward toward the chin area. This is the second layer of charcoal that is much heavier than the first defining layer. Repeat the second layering process on the lighter facial area until the face as a slightly egg shape. Then do a light amount of blending with your fingertips, once the portrait is lightly blended take a warmed putty rubber and carefully shade it into a point. Taking the warmed pointed rubber and start to pick out detailing points within the lightened portrait area such as lighting across the nose area, top of forehead and rounded underneath the eye area.
Continue this process across the portrait highlighting the light and dark. On the darkened side on the face, use the fingertips too carefully lighten the area in the same process as using a putty rubber. Once the lightening process is completed, begin finer detailing areas such as the eyes and then lighten the pupils using your pointed putty rubber while filling in the remaining surface areas of the face. Being sure to keep facial features in balance. Repeat this darkening and shading process across the entire face.
Keep the ear in line with the ear and raise the chin. Once you’ve sketched the entire face into its basic form, spend time streamlining the drawing by carefully changing and refining the lights and shadows. And watch as the portrait becomes more and lifelike plus detailed.
