Drawing in charcoal and crayon for the use of students and schools

by Frank Fowler

Charcoal is a favorite medium with many artists for landscape subjects, and it is, as before stated, especially useful in sketching from nature.

In beginning to draw a landscape in charcoal, first sketch in lightly the horizon line, the outlines of the trees and different objects, in their general aspect.

It is always well to select a subject where there is a good effect of light and shade and sufficient variety to give interest.

After the composition is sketched in, look for the large masses of shadow, and divide the whole into two distinct masses of light and shade, as in figure drawing. The sky is covered with a light tone, at first, and even the masses of light are also covered with a delicate half-tint.

The whole drawing may be made entirely with the point if it is desired, but the French artist Allongé, who is celebrated for his charcoal landscapes, prefers the use of the stump, with the point in finishing.

If in place of the stump the finger sometimes is used to blend the charcoal, and for rapid sketches, this is very effective.

After the general masses are put in, the details are drawn with the point, being somewhat softened with the stump, though in trunks of trees, dark branches, rocks, etc., the marks of the point are left unsoftened to give strength.

The lights are taken out with bread or rubber; sometimes a piece of chamois skin is found useful in lightening a tone. The light clouds are taken out with bread from the sky which has been covered with a half-tint, and the dark clouds are put in with the stump or point, according to the method employed.

In sketching from nature out of doors, it is always well to adopt some prominent object as a standard of measurement; for instance, take a house or tree in the middle distance, and compare this in height with objects in the background and foreground. In this way your perspective, if simple, may be made correct without any elaborate rules.

Objects in the distance are naturally smaller than those in the foreground, and the exact proportions can be determined by comparative measurement.