There is freedom in creating a piece of art that is just a thought, and nothing more. A lot of the time, an artist bears the weight of needing their artwork to be finished or “perfected” and abandons their original idea. This is the reason why, as an artist, I enjoy making art that seems raw and unfinished. I enjoy showing my artistic ideas in a way that allows them to seem as pure as the moment they were first thought of. Therefore, the material that I will be exploring is charcoal. Charcoal appeals to me because it is a material that artists often use for brainstorming and sketching raw ideas. When sketching out an idea without using refined materials, an artist is allowing themselves to be unrestrained and mentally liberated from the idea of creating refined work.
With charcoal, there is much less mental pressure on being decisive. This is because charcoal is an interdisciplinary material; while it is physically used for drawing, it is essentially being used for idea-making. With charcoal, one can not only draw, but also outline, smudge, sketch, and texturize. It’s an interdisciplinary tool. While painters utilize paint, and ceramicists utilize clay, there’s no such thing as a “charcoalist.” It’s not taught as a discipline, because anyone can utilize its free form for their ideas. (Do you think this is really true? What about drawers? drawing and painting? I see what you’re saying…drawing is a fundamental skill and technique…but there might be a more direct way of saying this.)
It is rare that a material allows an artist to portray an idea in a raw, unaltered, permanent way, the way that charcoal does. The physical nature of this material is effective in portraying the concept of permanence – charcoal, I would say, burns itself into the paper. Ultimately, it is a stick made of ash; it is made in batches with fire, inside of a charcoal kiln. There are three main types of charcoal that can be used, depending on the appetite of the artist: the charcoal pencil, vine charcoal, and compressed charcoal. Despite being seen as a singular art material, all three of these forms are developed and used in their own unique way. For instance, a charcoal pencil is simply a stick of compressed charcoal that has been wrapped in a wooden casing, much like a regular pencil. A charcoal pencil gives an artist the flexibility of using charcoal, but with all of the control and precision found in a drawing pencil (and it also appears to be the cleaner, dust-free alternative). A person might use vine charcoal for extremely fine dark lines and minimal contour. This makes the material useful for light drawing exercises. However, a compressed piece of charcoal can give the artist a much darker, richer line with which they can work.
When drawing with this material, the artist has an array of line variety to choose from. With charcoal, it is almost impossible to return back to the place from where you draw your line. Every line of charcoal engraves its solid black mark into the paper. By choosing to use such a raw material, the artist embraces the nature of flexibility and experimentation with their artistic endeavors.
Rudi Jie-A-Fa
thinkingthroughmakingsourcebook 