experimenting with charcoal in drawing class

Friday's drawing class tried their hand at charcoal drawing.

The first project I combined a portrait lesson with the charcoal.

10 year old

9 year old

7 year old

They all worked from the same early 1920's black and white photograph and this is a combination of black and white charcoal plus a gummy eraser. (their favorite) I'm so impressed with each of them.

The nine year old boy was quite pleased as he felt his work looked a lot like his grandmother.

Afterwards we still had some time left in class and so I told them to use the techniques they learned with the charcoal while creating their portrait and apply it to anything they wanted.

7 year old

How incredible is this bird? They start this project by just rubbing charcoal all over the paper. (they used a grey toned sheet) Then they sketch in the shape of their subject. 

10 year old

I love the angle of this bird.  After they have sketched in their subject, the kids used their very favorite art tool- they gummy eraser- and take out all the highlights. Then using the charcoal put in all the darkest shading.

"peek a boo seal"  9 year old

Then it just becomes a process of adding some white charcoal and blending or adding some black charcoal and blending until they are happy with the end product.

Needless to say at the end of drawing class, they were all very happy with their end products.

A little messier than they arrived, but happy.