Charcoal

Charcoal is a material made from burnt wood.

How Charcoal is Made

Charcoal is made by heating wood up in a special way so that no air can get in. When the wood is heated up the water inside disappears and the wood becomes light, black and powdery. This is charcoal.

How Charcoal is Used in Art

For art purposes charcoal can be used in the following ways:

• It can be smudged and blended
• It can be used to create lots of different types of marks
• It can create both very light and very dark marks
• As it is a very soft material charcoal can be used when creating textures using a technique called frottage.