Drawing with Charcoal: Historical Techniques of 19th Century France

Summary

The video script delves into the allure of charcoal as an artistic medium, highlighting its unique qualities such as dark, velvety, and grainy textures. It traces the evolution of charcoal art from its inability to adhere to surfaces to the 18th and 19th centuries when artists discovered methods to fix it, creating a golden glow. The script showcases French artist Timothy Mayhew's techniques, including using charcoal sticks, blending with cloth or feathers, and employing various tools for highlights and blending. It also touches on the protective measures of the era and the transition from ethereal landscapes to darker, more somber subjects, emphasizing the medium's integral role in art.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Charcoal is valued for its dark, velvety, grainy, and soft qualities, which appeal to artists for its tonal range and reworkability.
• 🌲 Charcoal originates from charred wood, but its large particles make it difficult to adhere to surfaces without binding techniques.
• 🕰 The use of charcoal in finished artworks became possible only in the 18th and 19th centuries with the development of binding methods.
• 🌅 French artists like Maxime Lalanne embraced charcoal, as seen in his 'Castle Overlooking a River', showcasing their techniques.
• 🖼️ Outdoor work with charcoal involves using an easel and a portable frame with textured paper that holds charcoal well.
• 🔪 Artists use various tools to apply charcoal, including the side of a charcoal stick for large areas and a cloth or feather for blending.
• 🖌️ A brush dipped in powdered charcoal can be used for smooth applications, while a pencil-like holder allows for detailed work.
• 💡 The key to charcoal drawing is to apply it lightly, allowing the paper's white to show through and facilitating easy erasure.
• ✏️ Highlighting in charcoal drawings is achieved by selectively removing charcoal, using tools like brushes or bread as erasers.
• 👐 Blending can be done with tools like stumps or fingers, contributing to the gradual emergence of a charcoal drawing.
• 🛡️ To protect their charcoal drawings, 19th-century artists used a resin-based fixative solution applied to the back of the paper.
• 🖼️ The 1850s in France saw the creation of soft, ethereal landscapes with charcoal, while later decades favored darker-toned drawings often depicting somber subjects or night scenes.
• 🧪 Experimentation with charcoal and similar materials like black chalk, conte crayon, and pastel highlighted the medium's integral role in art.

Q & A

What are some of the intrinsic qualities of charcoal that artists find appealing?

Artists are drawn to the dark, velvety, grainy, and soft qualities of charcoal, which allows for a range of tones that are easily reworked.

What is the origin of charcoal as an art medium?

Charcoal comes from charred pieces of wood and has been used by artists for its ability to produce a wide range of tones.

Why couldn't finished works of art be made with charcoal until the 18th and 19th centuries?

Charcoal particles are large and do not readily adhere to a surface, requiring the development of methods to bind or fix it to paper in later centuries.

How did artists in the 18th and 19th centuries fix charcoal to paper?

Artists used a resin-based fixative solution to bind the charcoal to paper, which also produced a golden glow.

Who is Timothy Mayhew and what does he demonstrate in the script?

Timothy Mayhew demonstrates the techniques used by French artists who fell in love with charcoal, showing how they worked with the medium.

Can you describe the setup an artist might use when working with charcoal outdoors as per the script?

An artist working outdoors with charcoal would bring an easel, a portable frame covered with stretched and textured paper, and a variety of drawing tools and materials.

What is the purpose of using the side of a stick of charcoal in charcoal drawing?

The side of a stick of charcoal is used to put down large areas of tone, such as the foreground, middle ground, and sky, providing a base for the artwork.

How did 19th-century artists apply charcoal smoothly in their drawings?

They applied charcoal smoothly using a brush dipped into a powdery form of charcoal or by blending broad strokes with a cloth or feather.

What tools did 19th-century artists typically use to make marks with charcoal?

19th-century artists typically used a pencil-like holder for charcoal, which they handled like a small paintbrush to make marks.

How did artists create highlights in their charcoal drawings?

Artists selectively removed charcoal to create highlights, using various tools including brushes, kneaded bread as an eraser, or a tapered end tool called a stump.

How did 19th-century artists protect their charcoal drawings?

They protected their charcoal drawings by brushing a resin-based fixative solution across the back of the paper.

What changes in style and subject matter can be observed in charcoal drawings from the 1850s France to a few decades later?

In the 1850s, French artists produced soft, ethereal-looking landscapes with charcoal, while a few decades later, darker-toned drawings representing somber subjects or night scenes were more popular.

What other materials did artists begin to experiment with alongside charcoal?

Artists began to experiment with similar powdery materials like black chalk, conte crayon, and pastel, or combined them with charcoal.

How did experimentation with different materials affect the perception of the medium in art?

Experimentation emphasized the medium itself as integral to a work of art, highlighting the unique properties and effects that could be achieved with these materials.