Trying some charcoal landscape drawing

[@doublezero5925]

Haven't looked at art in years...was beating my head off the wall with watercolour and 🤦‍♂️..you brought me home to charcoal...forgot how much I love it...thanks Paul ❤😁

[@PaulONeill_art]

Thank you

[@christopherbradshaw1436]

You sir are now one of my favorites

[@PaulONeill_art]

Thank you

[@nangustafson8110]

Very nice drawing, informative and encouraging.

[@PaulONeill_art]

Thank you

[@joyceschreiber2538]

Informative commentary and nice sketch. thank you.

[@PaulONeill_art]

Thank you

[@KaranSharma-mb2ut]

Thank you Paul!

[@PaulONeill_art]

Thank you

[@edzejandehaan9265]

If budget is a factor, making your own willow charcoal is easy. I made one batch that will last me years with stuff I had lying around the house, from willow branches from trees here on the farm.

[@dadsongs]

How do you make your own? I'd love to, especially if I use it to create the landscape it's from.

[@edzejandehaan9265]

@@dadsongs1. collect willow branches, about a finger thick or so (they will shrink a bit in the proces). 2. Take the bark of so you just have the pale wood. 3. (Optional) let it dry (it chars quicker when dry) 4. find a metal container with a lid (I used an empty Lyle's sirop tin can) 5. IMPORTANT, make a small hole (couple of mm diameter) in the lid. 6. Stuff as much willow sticks in the can as you can, and close the lid. 7. Make a small campfire, and put the can in it. As the contents of the can heat up, the hot wood will produce flammable gas that starts to escape through the hole and catch fire. The charring proces is complete when no more gas escapes, but leave it in a bif longer to be sure (the whole proces took me about twenty minutes/ half an hour). 8. ALSO IMPORTANT, don't open the lid immediately; when the hot charcoal comes in contact with oxygen, poof, bye charcoal, you just made some ash. Give it some time too cool off then open the lid. Good luck with it.

[@dadsongs]

@@edzejandehaan9265 This is great! Who would have thought it was so easy? Will other wood besides willow be suitable?

[@edzejandehaan9265]

@@dadsongs I only tried willow, it grows on my property and I knew it is a good wood for this. I think softer woods would be best and I would avoid wood with a of of resin in it like from pine trees. Grape vines should work very well. Just experiment!

[@gravestonework8664]

Your videos are so accessible and informative! Currently, I have “color fatigue” and are taking a break from watercolors and would like to try charcoal. You mention “tissue paper” for smudging. By tissue paper, do you mean the filmy paper that presents are wrapped in? Or is it paper towels (what I think you term kitchen roll). I’m in the U.S. and I think we may have different terms for things. 🙂

[@PaulONeill_art]

Hi. Thank you. Yes, it is interesting how the same words can mean different things. In the case of what I call tissue paper, it might be called Kleenex in the US and Canada; at least, that's what the internet tells me. But any soft paper or material could work. The goal is to gently smudge the charcoal. This creates softer edges and also lifts off some of the charcoal, creating a nice grey area. So you get a range of three values: the black charcoal, the grey smudged charcoal, and the white paper. I've seen people using their hands and fingers but that method gets very messy very quickly.

[@gravestonework8664]

@@PaulONeill_art Thanks for responding. Yes, it would be Kleenex then. I just call that a tissue. Lol. Your explanations of the values is very helpful.

[@nattyw495]

Enjoyed video found it interesting and informative postive and watching progress was wonderful, what size paper do you you usially use? Its the paper that confuses me most..mikelle art mom🎨✍👩‍🎨🇺🇸🇨🇦

[@danielfuentes6055]

beautiful

[@renzo6490]

Are you using a reference photo? If so, can we see it??

[@PaulONeill_art]

Hi. No reference photo. I prefer to to use my imagination.