Drawing techniques
Charcoal
A lightweight, black, porous material used for drawing and sketching and comes in both compressed and natural formats. Charcoal is usually produced by slow heating of wood creating an ideal drawing tool.
Ink and wash
A technique in which the ink is ‘watered down’ producing more transparent areas in which the paper or an underpainting can be seen. Artists making an ink and wash painting grind their own ink from a solid stick over an ink stone to obtain the ink, but prepared inks are also available. A common form of ink and wash can be seen in Japanese calligraphy.
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all coloured art media, including oil paints. The binder used is of a neutral hue and low saturation and the resulting artwork is commonly fixed to the paper using a spray fixative.
Pencil
A pencil is a writing or drawing instrument consisting of a thin stick of pigment (usually graphite, but can also be coloured pigment, pastel, water soluble pigment or charcoal) and clay, usually encased in a thin wood cylinder, though paper and plastic sheaths are also used.
