DRAWING IN CHARCOAL AND CRAYON.
CHAPTER I.
CHARCOAL AND CRAYON DRAWING.
In learning to draw, charcoal is the most available material that can be used, as, with it, large and striking effects are so easily and quickly produced, while it is also adapted to the most careful work, and may be carried on to any degree of finish. Another quality which renders charcoal especially of value as a medium for beginners in drawing is that it is so easily erased.
Charcoal is used for drawing from the cast and from the human figure in all the large art schools of Europe as well as in our own country, and is especially adapted to sketching from nature, as by its use most charming landscape and marine effects may be obtained.
TWO DIFFERENT METHODS.
There are two methods of working in charcoal—one, in which the charcoal point is used alone, the shading being put in with lines which are not blended, no stump, or rubbing together of any kind being allowed.
This style of drawing is principally used in illustrating, as it is more easily reproduced than those in which the stump is used. Full details of working in this manner will be given later.
The other method is that in which the charcoal is blended with a stump, no lines being visible in the modeling.
This manner of drawing is that most generally employed in art schools, and is susceptible of higher finish than the other.
It is also in this way that charcoal and crayon portraits are managed, such drawings being generally finished with crayon, and the two materials worked together. This subject also will be treated at length further on.
As we are writing for the benefit of those who have no knowledge whatever of charcoal drawing, we will begin at the very beginning, and shall endeavor to omit nothing that can be of practical use to the student.