Botanical Illustration III: Advanced Techniques

Charcoal is bold, daring and dramatic. It is much darker than any pencil and has a richness, creating a unique drawing experience. Charcoal is a versatile medium. While you can create extremely realistic, sensitive drawings with it, and there is something about picking up that dusty stump of charcoal that frees us to go big, expressive and gestural.

To start, bring out your sheet of charcoal paper (thick/course paper works best) and charcoal supplies. Tape your paper to a drawing board with artists tape all around the paper. This will create a nice smooth edge when finished.

Before applying any charcoal drawing techniques, please make preliminary drawing pencil sketches. We will begin practicing with two charcoal drawing techniques. Try a drawing with each technique or combine both techniques in a single drawing. Submit your piece or pieces when done.

Below you will see a video tutorial showing the two types of charcoal techniques--additive and reductive. 

Here is an interesting lesson on reductive charcoal drawing techniques: https://nitramcharcoal.com/blogs/blog/subtractive-charcoal-drawing-what-you-need-to-get-started.