Create Stunning Scenes With Speedball PH Coate Willow Charcoal: 12 Black Sticks For Artists Review

Bought these for my first art class and used them the whole semester and still have plenty charcoal sticks left. The first piece I created using this medium was chosen to be in our schools art show. Today I was just experimenting and decided to do a portrait of the late great Tupac. The sticks are so easy to work with and the variety of sizes in the box allows u to work w different parts of the picture nicely. Be gentle bcuz they're very soft and can snap if you aren't aware of your pressure…

The vine charcoal I received was very workable and I am very satisfied with the product that I got. So, to start with the bad before the good; this charcoal can be very hard to lay down at some points. I think it has something to do with the coating on the outside of the charcoal, but a little more elbow grease gets rid of that. Apart from the coating, it has a slightly chalky feel, but bends well! It doesn't stick to the paper too much (I've been using newsprint for still life), which makes it

Good quality charcoal, most of the sticks arrived intact, just a couple of broken smaller, but still usable pieces. For my hand, the sticks are a little bit thick. I could not tell from the description this detail and it would be nice if the maker would include this information.

First of all I'll say that I am happy with this piece of charcoal. For reference I bought the single, jumbo side. My primary interest in charcoal drawing is in portraiture and figure drawing. I often use it alongside my vine charcoal in the preliminary stages of my drawings and for blocking in larger, darker regions of the image.Physically it handles like most willow charcoal you'll have handled. I would describe the texture as "medium" by charcoal terms meaning it makes marks…

It's actually a 70 piece set, since the charcoal was sent in a envelope instead of being boxed. Also free charcoal dust! I'm sure the charcoal would have been fine though.

These charcoal sticks are, overall, mostly useless. I didn't bother to try out their feel on some paper, because I knew I wouldn't be keeping them. Here are my complaints:The sticks come in two bundles, each about half the length of the box they come in. Each stick is about the length of my thumb. The problem I have with this is that these sticks are too short to be economical! There are time I will want a longer stick and time when I want a shorter stick of charcoal. But this isn't too much of