How to Sharpen a Charcoal Pencil

Brian demonstrates how to properly sharpen a charcoal pencil. Read more to learn about the tools used in this video...
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In this video, Brian will show you the tools and techniques you will need in order to sharpen your charcoal pencils.
For this tutorial, you will need:
1. At least one charcoal pencil.
2. A razor blade.
3. A sanding pad or block.
4. A sheet of paper towel or rag to wipe the charcoal.
Chapters:
Intro & Materials 00:00
Meet the Pencils 00:45
Sharpening Supplies 03:06
How to Sharpen a New Pencil 03:43
How to Sharpen a Used Pencil 12:05
Last Step: Cleaning Up the Charcoal Dust 13:43
Conclusion 14:29
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The pencils shown in this video:
Wolff's Carbon- 6B: amzn.to/3NDzGJi
General's- 4B: amzn.to/3EbGQ4N
Marie's- Soft: amzn.to/3WuKU7d
Marie's- Neutral: amzn.to/3FIFtLN
Conte a Paris- 1710 B: amzn.to/3zGGtfG
(IMPORTANT!!: The Conte pencils have quality control issues, so only 5-6 per box of 12 will be usable. Try at your own risk.)
Other tools shown in this video:
Razor Blades: amzn.to/3t2bKG4
Sanding Pad: amzn.to/3NzJtjI
320 Grit Sanding Block (mentioned): amzn.to/3WvWHSy
Blue Shop Towel: amzn.to/3T5vPWS
Using the affiliate links above will help to support our channel.
#charcoalpencils #charcoaldrawing #artsupplies #artmaterials #arttutorial #drawingtutorial #learntodraw #arteducation #artlessons #artschool #anatomydrawing #figuredrawing
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NEW VIDEOS every Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday!
Submit your questions in the comment section and Brian will chose some of your questions to be answered in future videos. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Music Credits:
Music by Mark Generous - Softer - thmatc.co/?l=8269D91D
Music by Mr. Jello - A Love Note - thmatc.co/?l=6EDCB826

[@kaptainkermo]

Thankyou so much! Finally a way to sharpen my charcoal pencils after such a long time! Hope to get them really sharp soon 😊 thankyou again! 🙏🙏🙏

[@foundationartschool]

You're welcome!

[@jonahsanders7901]

This really touches on some key points that other pencil sharpening videos don't really talk about. Nice!!

[@foundationartschool]

Thanks Jonah! I really appreciate that. I tried to get all the important stuff in there but without the video becoming unwatchably long. Sometimes thats tough to do.

[@florianvilloing9531]

Thank you Brian. I personally prefer to use a utility knife instead of a single edge razor blade. It works just as well and seems safer to me.

[@foundationartschool]

A utility knife can work well too. I probably should have mentioned that in the video. People should use whichever tool can get the job done and they are comfortable with. I prefer the razor blade because i feel like i have more control over it but i've seen a lot of people make utility knives work well.

[@rociorizo8469]

Thank you You just answer my question!

[@rociorizo8469]

Love your videos Very professional From now on I am only watching your videos. The other videos are too much for me.

[@foundationartschool]

Thank you so much! I'm glad this helped you.

[@gregpanasiuk3349]

Another amazing content. Can't wait for more head drawing tutorials

[@foundationartschool]

Awesome! There's much more to come in the future.

[@williammclean6594]

Should we buy an entire package of pencils? Because art supply stores sell them loose and I don't know what would be more cost effective?

[@foundationartschool]

Being able to buy them loose is nice because you can try them out before commiting to a box. You may want to try one or two of a few different types just to test them out and see what you prefer. After you get into a consistent drawing routine with one or two favorite pencils, I would recommend buying them by the box. It's cost effective and nice to have plenty on hand so you don't have to restock often. Either way really is fine. It's more about what works best for you.

[@williammclean6594]

Are those charcoal pencils that you can peel so you don't need to use a blade any good?

[@foundationartschool]

I haven't found any yet that are good for the type of drawing i do. But what i do is a very specific type of training method that uses these charcoal pencils on smooth newsprint. If you're using more traditional charcoal materials like better paper and compressed charcoal sticks and vine charcoal and stuff like that, then you can add in some of those peelable pencils and they can work okay. I haven't tried every brand and type though so its definitely possible that there are some peelable charcoal pencil that would be good for what i do and i just don't know about them.

[@williammclean6594]

@@foundationartschool I was just wondering because General has them in the same 4B. So theoretically it should be the same thing and it might save time not having to sharpen them so often with a knife

[@foundationartschool]

@@williammclean6594 the generals 4b is on the soft side and isn't the best option in my opinion. Its okay for certain things like starting a drawing and establishing some soft edges really fast but its difficult to do more detailed work with it. Although you could probably use a combination of a few different generals hardnesses and and get everything you need out of them. Part of the reason we teach with these tools is because its possible to get a full range of value and mark making out of just once pencil through pressure sensitivity and dexterity alone when combined with smooth newsprint. The generals are also very inconsistent and not all 4b's are the same. Some are harder and some are softer and you never know what you're going to get when you buy them. Mostly its a pencil that i recommend when people live in parts of the world where they can't get any of the other pencils. Its good enough but not the best option. But if you live somewhere where you can't get a better pencil then using a peelable generals would probably work just fine. You'll still need to do the sanding part but it might save you a little bit of time overall.

[@williammclean6594]

@@foundationartschool that makes sense I've never seen the other brands aside from Generals in the stores here you can only get them online and it sucks that like shipping for things is more than what you're spending for the things that you're buying and I live in Canada and so it's not like it's so far away but I guess countries have different laws regarding shipping and products so that's why we don't get the products from the US even though we're like two feet away from them