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How to Do a Portrait in Charcoal

Charcoal as a drawing medium is soft, blendable and extremely effective at dramatically portraying light and shadow. To maximize these special properties of charcoal and create expressive, but realistic drawings -- such as portraiture -- you need to first experiment with and become comfortable with how charcoal behaves on paper. Most charcoal artists put down a deposit of dark charcoal first, then use an eraser or a paper pencil, called a tortillon, to "carve" out areas by removing or blending layers of charcoal to achieve the correct level of light and dark.

Things You'll Need

  • Medium texture drawing paper
  • Masking tape
  • Drawing board, easel or other flat surface
  • Drawing pencil
  • Model (live or photograph)
  • Soft vine charcoal
  • Fine grit sandpaper
  • Paper towel
  • Moist hand towelettes
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Tortillon
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Instructions

    • 1

      Secure your drawing paper to your drawing board, easel or flat surface using small lengths of masking tape at all four corners.

    • 2

      Look between your model and the paper, and sketch, using light strokes of the drawing pencil, the approximate size, shape and angle of the subject's head, chin and neck.

    • 3

      Sand the side of your charcoal lightly over the drawing paper, creating a fine black dust. Rub the dust into the paper, using the paper towel, in a circular motion. Start in the center of the paper, working over your sketch and out to the edges of the paper.

    • 4

      Fill in the area you sketched for the head and chin, using the side of the charcoal. Blend the head and chin shape using your finger.

    • 5

      Fill in the area you sketched for the neck, using the side of the charcoal. Blend the neck shape using your finger.

    • 6

      Clean your hands with a moist towelette. Do this throughout the process to ensure that you do not accidentally smear residual charcoal from your fingers onto the paper.

    • 7

      Knead your eraser between your clean fingers to warm and soften it. Pull the eraser into a slightly pointy cylinder shape, and use it to begin to erase away the shape of your model's eyes, the bottom of the nose, and the shadows cast below the bottom lip and chin. Keep looking between your model and the paper as you work.

    • 8

      Use the tortillon to help blend small areas of the portrait, such as the sides of the nose, highlights inside the eyeball, the shape of the mouth, and wrinkles in the forehead or eye area.

    • 9

      Continue adding and taking away dark charcoal, observing your model as you work, to form the features of your model.


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