Rendering with Charcoal Pencil

In this lesson, instructor Chris Legaspi will show you rendering techniques with a charcoal pencil. He will talk about his favorite tool, Wolff’s Carbon pencil, and introduce a great alternative, the black CarbOthello pencil. You will learn how to sharpen your tools to needlepoint to achieve beautifully rendered drawings. Chris will walk you through all the main drawing steps and show you how to apply this medium in portrait and figure drawings.

This lesson belongs to the course An Overview of Rendering Techniques. In this 9-week course, Chris Legaspi teaches you a variety of techniques for rendering your drawings and paintings. You will learn to create lay-ins, mass in value shapes, refine, and render using different mediums. Whether you are working in pencil, conté, charcoal, watercolor, or oil paints, this course will help give you the skills and approaches needed for developing your rendering style.

Throughout this course, you’ll have access to the NMA community for feedback and critiques to improve your work as you progress.