Best Cheap Charcoal Pencils for Beginners

Thrifty Thursday

Charcoal pencils are another great tool when first starting out in art. They are very forgiving to use and you don’t need a ton to start with. Don’t worry about getting the most expensive charcoal pencils. Inexpensive brand pencils work just as well, sometimes even better than the expensive brands.

Just like with graphite pencils buy only a few different levels of hardness. In the past I was using the Ritmo brand but found they had changed and seemed to break more easily so I switched back to General’s, the brand I used in college.

When using your charcoal pencils if you feel like there are tiny rocks in the pencil or the pencil seems to just scratch the paper, sharpen your pencil to remove the hard part. If this continues or seems to happen often then you may need to switch brands.

Pencil Basics:

The numbers and letters on the pencils correspond with the hardness of the charcoal.

Pencil numbers with an “H” = harder pencils and make lighter lines
Pencil numbers with a “B” = softer pencils and make darker lines

Created with Generals charcoal pencils on toned paper

Shape Basics For Beginners: Draw Through

Tutorial Tuesday

Shape Basics: Draw Through

Draw through objects as you draw. When placing an object behind another don’t just draw the parts the viewer would see, this can cause miss alignment and have a weird effect. Drawing through helps you line up and place the objects you are drawing properly.

Add more details using the shape structure lines as guides to add eyes, nose or other details.

Clean up your structure lines by removing the lines you don’t want to see in the final drawing.

There you go well done!

Drawing Shape Basics for Beginners

Tutorial Tuesday

Shape Basics: Large to Small

Look for basic shapes before you begin the drawing. This will help you map out the shapes you are going to use in the drawing.

Start with the largest shapes first when beginning your sketch or drawing. When you start with large shapes and work your way towards smaller shapes this will help with placement and design of the overall drawing. Place the largest shapes and then add the medium shapes and work your way down to the small shapes. Don’t put in any details in yet, you still may need to make adjustments.

Connect all of your shapes and work on the form of your subject. Don’t worry and take your time, you have done most of the work already and this is the fun part. Your drawing is now taking shape.

Keep the details last, they should just be the textures, patterns and small details that will help enhance the final drawing. They should not be the most important part of the drawing. There you go you did it. Congratulations!

Keep practicing and have fun.

Keep Going

Monday Motivation

Sometimes it can feel like nothing is going your way and you just want to give up. Don’t stop keep going, it’s ok the tough moments in life will pass. We all struggle with different things at different times in our lives. It’s not necessarily about the end result today but the journey and where it leads you next.

Don’t stop creating your art, keep going. Today you have a hard time with drawing and tomorrow you could have a break through. Maybe after months of painting something clicks for you and your understanding grows. Keep going.