Making Charcoal (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

WHY MAKE YOUR OWN CHARCOAL?

Icould argue that there are many reasons to make your own charcoal: it’s inexpensive and sustainable, most of the materials are gathered for free, it needs only a few simple pieces of equipment, and it makes interesting and varied marks. The artist William Kendrick, when speaking about his use of charcoal, said:

A lot of artists in South Africa did drawing because it was cheap. You could find a scrap of paper and a ball-point pen, or a piece of charcoal and you could be an artist. You didn’t need an easel and stretchers and canvas and turpentine and expensive oil paint.

In addition to all this it can also give a sense of direct connection to the medium you’re using to make art with, because it’s in your hand – no mediation of the brush. Also, there’s a connection to the land that the charcoal came from, and the drawings that you’ll make from it. There is definitely something wonderful, and hard to define in the feelings you get when you open that tin and see charcoal you’ve made, and then the marks that that charcoal makes on paper.

QUALITY CONTROL AND COURTING THE ACCIDENTAL

When I say ‘control’, I use the term loosely because one of the most interesting things about making your own charcoal to draw with, is the element of surprise inherent in using small-scale production methods and natural gathered materials with all their beautiful imperfections and quirky characteristics. But what you do have control of, is what materials to use, and what qualities these may give you in your drawings. You may not always get precisely the same result from the same method or plant, but you will always get something interesting.

In your work, this non-uniformity can be really exciting as you respond to the variability – a sort of collaboration with the material. The more charcoal you make, the more you will quickly develop the knowledge and skills needed to make more consistent batches of charcoal, especially if you use a limited range of plant material to start with, and test how best to char it to have the quality you want. I often find, though, that as I get more proficient, I like to push the process in some way, make it a little more difficult, or court the accidental to bring that element of surprise into the charcoal, and in turn, into my drawings.

Benjamin Murphy, a visual artist and writer based between London and Helsinki, works with natural charcoal on raw canvas. He has moved from using commercially made willow and compressed charcoal to making his own from the silver birch (Betula pendula) that surrounds him on Lake Saimaa.

QUALITIES OF COLOUR AND TONE, AND EASE OF ERASING

When you use different types of plant material to make your own charcoal, you’ll begin to see how different they are from each other when you draw with them. Willow (Salix viminalis), the traditional wood for artist’s charcoal (and willow weaving), is a black with a silvery note, and can have a slight warm brown tone when blended. Alder (Alnus glutinosa) also has a silvery black tone and very fine texture. In fact, alder used to be used in gunpowder because it can be ground down so finely. Ivy has a little blueness to the colour, and can be scratchy and a little brittle. It has less scratchiness when you use dead rather than dried wood. Grape vine (Vitis vinifera) gives a rich black to dark grey. Older knuckles of vine can have their bark left on as this turns very soft and very black, almost like fine soft pastel. Raspberry canes (Rubus idaeus) have a brownish tone, and are very crumbly; they are good for adding large areas of tone. Thick blackberry stems (Rubus fruticosus) have a hard outer skin that gives fine black lines and an inner soft, powdery core that’s a light blown black.

All these species will erase differently, blend differently, and respond to paper surfaces differently. What you’ll be building as you make your own charcoal is a toolbox of variety, of non-uniform mark-making possibilities.

Sometimes the pieces of charcoal I make are so beautiful that they become like little sculptures. I’ve many pieces of interesting charcoal ‘too nice to use’, sitting on shelves around my house! They have also become plinths or components in sculptural work.

LOOKING, GATHERING, AND PAYING ATTENTION

In some circumstances you might want to make charcoal from, and/or on, a specific place or landscape, and sometimes you might just want to make charcoal to draw with and it doesn’t need to have any connection to a place. Either way I would argue that the foraging for materials involves closer observation of your surroundings than you might otherwise give them. It may be that you’re searching for a certain species of wood, or that you’re looking with an open mind for something interesting that...