The Secret Life of Charcoal

For years I’ve done charcoal preparatory drawings, and then put them in a drawer.  A few friends have seen my “stash” and encouraged me to show them, so I thought I’d talk about this critical step in my creative process.  My process is to do a plein air painting in oil or pastel, and then to do a charcoal drawing back in the studio, based on the field study.  If I can I size the charcoal to the studio piece that I plan to do.  Then when I’m finished I trace the main lines of the image, turn the tracing paper over, copy the lines with charcoal, turn the paper back over and rub it onto the canvas or paper.  Now I’m ready to go!Charcoal is the “what if” step in the process: What if I eliminate that tree, or move it over here?  What if I make the mountain bigger or smaller?  What if I nudge the whole thing toward evening?  I work in vine charcoal, usually the big fat sticks.  First I cover in the paper in charcoal and rub it in with a cloth. Second I draw in the main lines, this is what I call “land lines”,  the horizon and the big basic shapes.  Third I mass in the darks.  After this the process is more organic; I pull out the lights with an eraser and put the darks in with charcoal.  For mid-tones I uses a stump or cloth.  It’s so easy to make changes,   I can take out a tree with the wipe of a cloth, and then put it back in with the side of the charcoal, and without the added complexity of color I can usually finish a drawing within a few hours.  If a piece doesn’t work in black and white, chances are it won’t work in color.When I move onto the studio painting, I refer back to the study and the charcoal drawing.  It’s easy to lose track of important elements in a painting; in the process of laying in the sky, I might lose the shape of the tree.  Then I refer back  to the drawing and I remember where I meant to go.  It also reminds me to keep my colors tied to proper values, and to keep each element (say a back of trees) within a value “family.”Perhaps the most important benefit of this step is that working in charcoal helps me to move away from slavishly copying toward a more personal statement.  The landscape becomes more of a departure point for my own ideas.  The changes are often subtle, but important.So here’s a handful of drawings.  Let me know what you think.