How to Use Charcoal Sticks

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    • 1). Place a sheet of textured drawing paper on a drawing table. Shade the background of the paper lightly with a vine charcoal stick. Hold the stick at an angle so that a broad amount of the tip is contacting the paper to create a lightly shaded background.

    • 2). Draw the basic outline of the subjects within the drawing with a charcoal stick. Hold the stick as you would a pencil. Apply varying amounts of pressure to the paper to create dark and light lines as needed for the subjects.

    • 3). Blend mistakes into the background using a paper towel. Because the vine charcoal sticks are so soft, they can be easily blended to correct stray lines. Blend lines to create shadows with blending stumps. Erase areas lightly to create subtle highlights using a kneaded eraser.

    • 4). Refine the details of the sketch with compressed charcoal pencils. Make medium dark lines with a soft compressed charcoal pencil and dark lines with a hard compressed charcoal pencil.

    • 5). Spray the sketch with a spray fixative to protect the drawing from smudges. This is particularly important to do since charcoal can easily smudge, which could ruin your sketch.

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