The Materials VINE CHARCOAL Vine charcoal is a piece of charred willow. It comes in different softness/hardness varieties. Soft vine charcoal will produce dark gray value, Medium will be lighter, Hard produces the lightest value range. It moves very easily on paper. Its easy to manipulate, almost like clay. It's easy to blend with and remove with a kneaded or plastic eraser. COMPRESSED CHARCOAL Compressed charcoal is much darker. There is a bit of oil in it, and thus the values you can produce will get much darker than vine. The blackness you can produce is very rick and dark. Compressed charcoal also comes in pencil form. Compressed charcoal works best for fine details and for when you want to produce a rich shadow. Sighting & Measurement in Still Life Drawings Make use of a pencil, chop stick or other straight hand held tool that you can use to lay against the still life forms you see. This will help you see angles more accurately. ...
