Charcoal
Charcoal is probably the oldest art medium there
is. Maybe mud is older, but charcoal has endurance.
One way to get into this medium is to start with
toned paper.
You can buy "toned" paper, ea. paper
that comes in colors and tints, but working on paper you have toned yourself is
very different.
This week students of the Renaissance Art Gallery
got the chance to tone their own paper and learn about more than charcoal.
Each took a piece of what is essentially, white
drawing paper. Using drafting dots, they secured their piece to the table, and
after drawing an 8 x 10 drawing area on the paper began to tone the paper.
Using flat block of charcoal they applied a thin
layer to the entire surface of the paper. This not over covered the paper, but
revealed the grain or texture of that particular paper.
Discovery:
It isn’t “just paper” Each brand, type and press of paper has its own
unique characteristics. These can enhance or fight your artwork.
Then they were to take a paper towel and smear
the charcoal all around.
Discovery: neatly folder towels and simply
bunched up towels did give different results, as did spreading with your bare
hands or with a stiff brush
Now on to the artwork.
We have various white objects for students to
work from. A white candle, white rocks, a square white box, a white vase with
white roses in it.
Yes they were all white!
Taking charcoal erasers, cotton swaps, brushes,
vine and willow charcoal and blending sticks they were to remove/add charcoal
to create drawings of these white object, but without drawing an outline first,
simply start removing charcoal in the basic shapes.
Discovery: You do not need to draw the outline in heavy black lines, but simply build on the shapes of shadow and light.
Discovery:
It isn’t “just paper” Each brand, type and press of paper has its own
unique characteristics. These can enhance or fight your artwork.
Discovery: neatly folder towels and simply
bunched up towels did give different results, as did spreading with your bare
hands or with a stiff brush
These beautiful paintings are now on display at the Renaissance Art Gallery, along with other works by Fern Christian. Fern is not only an artist, but the founding director of the Renaissance Art Gallery, an artist-run co-op in down town Huntington, WV. She teaches painting in an open studio Monday 10-12:00. 
Saturday will also be our 3rd ATC meet and swap from 1-3 pm.
APC is the theme, Altered Playing Cards. This will help us all get into the
mood for the 12th Annual National Miniature Exhibition in November. The
original miniature were painted on the playing cards of the day in watercolor
and gouache. So working with playing cards is perfect! Drawing teacher Susan Tschantz will have
lots of things for everyone to work on. She has an enormous stash of pencils!