Sight Size Cast Drawing - Choosing the right charcoal

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by: charlie4u
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Word Count: 589
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 Time: 1:36 AM

There's nothing more discouraging than being 3 weeks into a cast drawing and then realizing that your charcoal is not up to the standards your charcoal drawing really needs. It is frustrating when you cannot seem to handle that level of detail that can bring your drawing to the fine resolution it deserves.

We’ve all been there. You’ve got your proportions locked down, the light effect is coming together, but you just can’t achieve those subtleties that will catapult your drawing from competent to elegant.

You ask yourself: where did I go wrong? why did I purchase such awful, messy charcoal?

Well, if you were like me a couple years ago, it was because Nitram Fusains Fine Art Charcoal suddenly disappeared from the shelves in all my favorite art supply stores. I actually paid close to $400 for five or six boxes of Nitram Fusains. $400 for a few hundred burnt sticks! Sounds crazy? Read on because this charcoal is worth it!

A little history:

A French gentleman named Daniel Gros made Nitram Fusains (fusains is French for charcoal) for decades in a little town about 90 miles outside of Paris. This charcoal was good. Actually, it was very good. So good, that there was no reason to use anything else. Afterall, Classical Painting Ateliers and Realist Art Academies worldwide used it exclusively. As a matter of fact they recommended that students purchase it before attending their schools.

Then, a few years ago, it was gone. For a number of reasons, Mr. Gros decided to get out of the business. Suddenly, artists worldwide were deprived of the finest charcoal ever made. Ask anyone studying at the Florence Academy of Art in 2009 what they did to get decent charcoal and you will hear an earful. I myself even dug around in old patent records looking for manufacturing information, kiln designs, and anything else helpful.

Fortunately, selecting the right charcoal has become a no-brainer. Thanks to Jerzy Niedojadlo, the inimitable Nitram brand of artist’s charcoal lives on. Believe me, I’ve tried every kind of vine and willow charcoal I could get my hands on. There is no comparison or alternative. Nitram was and still is simply the best name in artist's charcoal.

Unlike most commercially available drawing charcoal, Nitram Fine Art Charcoal is made from carefully selected wood, that is chosen for the straightness of its grain. This ensures that the charcoal handles evenly through the stick. There are no hard spots in the charcoal that will cut into your paper, and the stick runs straight as a pencil, so the handling is consistent.

The wood is carefully cooked in a kiln, carbonizing the wood evenly. This ensures that from piece to piece, each stick of a particular hardness will handle the same as the next. The color temperature is also consistent. Many willow and vine charcoals on the market will show an odd reddish or bluish tint when deposited thickly on the paper, but Nitram Charcoal is always the same velvety warm grey.

If you are serious about fine art and cultivating your draughtsmanship skills and want nothing but the best materials in your work, I strongly recommend Nitram Fusains Fine Art Charcoal. Everything else is just tinder.

Tim Rourke

Timothy P. Rourke is a Chicago-based artist who studied at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy and the Ravenswood Atelier in Chicago.

About the Author

Nitram Fusains - The finest Drawing Charcoal in the World. We ship our art charcoal to all over the world. Nitram Fusains Academy line comes in H, HB and B hardness. This allows the artist to create a broad range of tones. Nitram is now becoming available around the world in stores that sell high quality artists materials.

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