Charcoal: Messy and BOLD

We used vine charcoal to draw a still life and practice some drawing exercises. Vine Charcoal it is an ancient drawing tool made from burning sticks of wood. We opened up class by practicing some warm-up drawing exercises that artists often use to loosen up their arm and hand muscles.

First we used our entire range of motion to make giant circles with charcoal on our drawing paper. We loosened up our upper body muscles in this exercise because you start by using your WHOLE upper body to make the circles.

S Second we tried drawing straight lines freehand by pulling the charcoal from the top of the page to the bottom.

Lenyce got creative with her warm-up and drew an evil eye in the center of her circle.

Lanae used a piece of vine charcoal to make straight lines on her sheet of drawing paper.

For the remainder of class we used our view-finders to draw the still life in the center of the room. Lenyce and Sharaya focused on drawing the same portion of the still life. Shelby placed an emphasis on the iconic Obama HOPE poster sitting in the middle of still life.

Charcoal is a challenge, it allows you to be expressive and bold in a way that graphite does not.