: Kate Boucher
: Making Charcoal A Practical Guide for Artists
: The Crowood Press
: 9780719844072
: 1
: CHF 12,50
:
: Bildende Kunst
: English
: 112
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
This practical book explains how to make charcoal using the simplest processes. Once understood, it encourages artists to experiment with the technique and to enjoy its unpredictable results. A sister title to Drawing with Charcoal, it will inspire artists and makers to look further into this sustainable material and to embrace its exciting potential.

Kate Boucher is a professional artist who specialises in drawing the landscape with charcoal. She is a QEST scholar and has won numerous awards. She also teaches widely. 

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.

Detail of a charcoal drawing on paper by Kate Boucher, with a piece of bramble (Rubus fruticosus) charcoal.

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