Charcoal Rub With Addition and Subtraction

For the beginner charcoal often gets a bad rap because of its messiness and the seeming difficulty of manipulating it. It is however a wonderful medium with amazing capabilities. The charcoal rub is intended to lay down a middle value that allows the artist to utilize efficiency in putting down charcoal in the shadow shapes and removing it in the shapes of light with a kneaded eraser. It is a reductive or subtractive process as well as additive.

The Geometric Figure

Structure and geometry in the figure is obscured by skin, muscle, bone and our inaccurate perception of what we are attempting to accomplish. This is more interpretive than other processes and requires our ability to observe and understand perspective and simple forms in space. It requires seeing the figure as something that can be sliced, planed and transparent. Learning this process makes it easier to understand volume and foreshortening relative to line.