How to make drawing charcoal?

How hard would it be to make Vine Charcoal for drawing and what would I do to make it?

I was going to buy some artist charcoal for sketching, but it's at least a dollar a stick.  These are made from willow and grape vines (usually willow) which grow in abundance on my farm.  I'm frugal.

Can I make my own?

Looking online there are a lot of different opinions on how to do this.  Many of the videos I watched had the charcoal container either explode or the contents burn up.  So I'm not sure who to trust.  I know permaculture people make lots of charcoal for other reasons... what do you think?


Do I have to make charcoal outside?  Can it be SAFELY made in an inside woodstove?  Or an oven?  

Would the sticks be okay green?  Or should I cut and dry them now?  Or should they be harvested while dormant?

What do I want to look for in a charcoal-making container?  Can I re-use the tin to make more?

Is this vine charcoal the same that is used to make vine black watercolour paint?  Or ink?  If so, maybe I want to make lots.  

How long does a stick of charcoal usually last?  One drawing?  Ten?  Two hundred?  (assuming the length of my hand size stick)

I have to wait a month or two before I can have a fire (inside or out), but I would love to gather some more information about this.  

I have used a well cleaned out paint can to make charcoal.  I punch a few holes in the lid, put the wood in it and set the can on a fire outside.    I have no idea if the charcoal is art quality …I have never used it for that.

One of the major biochar projects that I've been involved with over the past few years is led by artists. The material that we're making gets used as drawing charcoal and also gets ground up and made into ink. The things to play with are type of feedstock and temperature of pyrolysis. It's very intuitive: soft woods like pine and poplar make soft charcoals and hard woods like oak or materials like bamboo and coconut shells make tougher stuff, which is good for fine points and detail work.

Lower temperature methods leave behind products of incomplete combustion, like tars and oils. These act as binders and can help the pigment stick to your drawing surface, but also give off a smoky smell. Higher temperature chars are more "pure" and if you use a retort in a hot fire, you can learn to make grey or white charcoal. Another thing to try is soaking the feedstock with mineral additives to add colour. Rust water will give you reds, oranges and browns. Copper salts give nice blues and greens.

This video uses grape vines, tin foil, and an inside wood stove.   She said a couple of hours.



Our wood stove can melt aluminum foil, so it would need to be as the fire is finishing.   I wonder if we could leave it overnight.

We are moving to a property with willow trees so I looked for so info on making artists charcoal sticks. I liked this video from a UK guy and it seems pretty simple to do. ( I'm thinking about doing some bigger batches as well so I can try biochar, but that's a larger effort trial)

I am loving all these various details about haw to make drawing quality charcoal. It's one of those things that's been on my to-do list for a few years.

It sounds like one can really experiment a lot with all the variables- wood choice, thickness, temperature, even soaking it in different solutions first. We are studying chemistry this year in our homeschool and  this would be a fun STEAM project for us.

The only thing I can add new to the conversation is my experience drawing with charcoal. OP asked how long a stuck of charcoal lasts. For the skinny, soft sticks of charcoal, I could use 1/2 to 1 while stick per drawing session. The large, harder sticks, well, I went through only two the whole semester I took a drawing class in college and I was drawing with them almost every day on large 2'x3' pieces of newsprint as well as in a smaller sketch book.
(I know this because I was making individual art supply boxes for my kids yesterday and found my original package of charcoal from college in the back of a drawer.)

From what I can tell, it looks like a small handful of short sticks will make enough vine/drawing charcoal for a year or two.

For people selling handmade charcoal,  3 or 5 sticks is the usual.   For commercial,  10-25 sticks in a container.

I love this book. It has a chapter so about making charcoal- just the basics of prepping the wood, the container, the fire.

I have the adult version of that book out from the library.  The librarians have a standing joke about it because the last few years it spent more time at my house than in the library collection.  (I have to take it in to the branch every 6 weeks to prove that I haven't lost or damaged it and sometimes other people want to borrow it so I reluctantly let them have it for 3 weeks until I can borrow it again).

I really need to get my own copy.  I've put it on my wishlist, but it's expensive in Canada, so I'm hoping to find it second hand one day.  

r ranson wrote:
I really need to get my own copy.  I've put it on my wishlist, but it's expensive in Canada, so I'm hoping to find it second hand one day.  

😂 I haven't quite checked out library's copy THAT much. The adult edition is on my thrift hunting wish list list too.  I was so excited to find the kids' book at a children's consignment sale last year. My husband and my friends did not understand why I was so excited.

Would mulberry work?

r ranson wrote:I have the adult version of that book out from the library.  The librarians have a standing joke about it because the last few years it spent more time at my house than in the library collection.  (I have to take it in to the branch every 6 weeks to prove that I haven't lost or damaged it and sometimes other people want to borrow it so I reluctantly let them have it for 3 weeks until I can borrow it again).

I really need to get my own copy.  I've put it on my wishlist, but it's expensive in Canada, so I'm hoping to find it second hand one day.  

I have no idea what your idea of an expensive book is, what the cost of shipping something from the US to Canada is, or any of a number of other factors, but figured it might be worth pointing out:


On the US Amazon site, the adult and kid's version of the book look to be about a dollar different in price - I don't know if Amazon will ship to Canada from their .com site, but maybe a US permie could ship it to you if that isn't too cost prohibitive?

There also seems to be a digital version... though I realize that isn't the same experience as holding a physical book in your hand.

Jenny Wright wrote:

r ranson wrote:
I really need to get my own copy.  I've put it on my wishlist, but it's expensive in Canada, so I'm hoping to find it second hand one day.  

😂 I haven't quite checked out library's copy THAT much. The adult edition is on my thrift hunting wish list list too.  I was so excited to find the kids' book at a children's consignment sale last year. My husband and my friends did not understand why I was so excited.

Out of curiosity, how significantly different are the adult and kid's versions of the books?  

I feel like for myself I might be more interested in the adult version, but I also have a 9 year old and an almost 5 year old that would be pretty fascinated by a lot of these concepts if they're presented right.  

Wonder if I could get my library to purchase I copy of *both* of them... lol.

Actually, I just saw that they DO have the ebooks of both available to borrow! So I started downloading the kid's version just now. Maybe I can give it a look after breakfast or something once it is done downloading.




Edit: I'm also now trying to resist going down the rabbit hole - at least for now - of all of the other books that showed up when I searched Amazon for "Organic Artist." It looks like there may be quite a few really interesting ones out there covering some similar topics. Not sure how many of them would deal with making your own charcoal and the various techniques people have mentioned in this thread. Most that I scrolled through looked, at least on the surface, to be focused on pigments and dyes, making your own inks, painting, dying, etc...  

As much as soaking a dried willow branch in various chemical solutions before heating it to specific temperatures in a retort fascinates me; it also kinda seems like it may be viewed by many as a more advanced and technical process. But I haven't actually read any of these books to see how technical they tend to get with things.

Mulberry would be a great soft wood, not too different from willow as a charcoal feedstock.

willow sticks seem to do best so far.  They are easiest to peel and I like the black they give.  The grape vines are a bit thinner and give a warmer black.



It's a bit tricky making sure the fire embers aren't too hot or cold.  Too hot and the tin makes lots of fire out of the hole.  Too cold, the sticks don't draw as well and I need to put it back in the next time I have a fire.  But on the whole, I'm having a lot of luck and I think a few batches like this should give me enough charcoal for a year.  

It's a great medium to play with and I'm looking forward to finding a way to use this - although it's probably going to be a summer drawing medium as it gets EVERYWHERE!  



My first time drawing with charcoal.  

I have been having loads of fun making charcoal.  But I've noticed some things and I'm not sure what to change first.

The lids don't have as tight a fit anymore.

I put straight sticks in and get curved charcoal out.

The shrinkage is a lot more than it was.

I am using fresher wood instead of letting it dry in the house before making charcoal.  


So I'm thinking of starting with the lids.  Sometimes they pop open slightly.  Perhaps some wire to keep them closed?

Low tech - I use natural cork from wine or champagne. It also is great theatre make up. put in the fire of a candle. It has to be natural cork.
I realize you are looking for something more professional. I'm reading through now.
Peace, Jo

Found this video on commercial drawing charcoal.   I didn't know so much of it was done manually still.  I doesn't make me feel so bad for the work it takes to make mine.  And now I see why it's one to two dollars a stick here.

r ransom wrote:

The lids don't have as tight a fit anymore.

Yes, I found that a lot when making biochar which likely uses hotter temperatures than you are using.

1. Square/rectangular boxes with fitted lids such as cookie tins fit our wood stove well, but didn't last long.

2. Round metal paint cans with the "fits in a groove" lid lasted better, but they would still burn right through the side or bottom after only a dozen burns or so. There's a reason that permies strongly discourages the use of metal inside RMH's - there are a few spots where metal can be used when it's far from the hottest flames, but used in the riser, it failed quickly.

3. We're now using stainless steel restaurant "warming trays" with solid, nearly flat lids. The lids just sit on top. You don't need holes, as any gas can just escape around the edge of the lid the way steam would escape if being used for their original purpose. They aren't cheap and not easy to find near me for second hand. Even those - the ones I've used the most - look like they've gone through the fire and have bulges where they didn't use to!

On the topic of material, a book I read talked about making artists charcoal using I think,  "Manzanita" branches. I believe it is a shrubby relative of Arbutus which I know that I see growing in my ecosystem, but I don't recall ever seeing what they described growing. I don't know if Arbutus will substitute. If you're wanting to try it, I can hunt for the book and check the reference and see if I can get the right plant name, but I'm not sure if it gives a botanical name and that plant family is pretty confused...  However, I do recall the author speaking highly of this charcoal for use by artists.

Manzanita seems to mean different trees depending how far north or south we are.  I'm pretty sure most of them are what we call arbutus (arbutus menziesii) or close enough.  Strawberry tree is another common name in the pacific northwest. (Although some Strawberry trees and manzanita also reference different trees and bushes, it seems more a classification in the vernacular than a specific cultivar - like tomatoesa are to cherry tomatoes)

The names are confusing.

But the wood should be close enough that arbutus menziesii is worth a try.  Thanks for the suggestion.

r ransom wrote:Manzanita seems to mean different trees depending how far north or south we are.  

I think the book was local to Oregon, USA. Can't swear it wasn't northern California or southern Washington. Definitely south of my local.

Tis the season to make small batches of artist charcoal.  I might just have to go to the woods and get some.  We had a few branches blow down in a recent windstorm.

Observation on the arbutus so far

It's easy to take the bark off a tree that sheds her skin.

It's not easy to find straight bits a consistent thickness.

This wood also splits while drying, so I will need to make charcoal in the next day or so while the wood is still green.

Arbutus
Preparation wise, arbutus wins hands down as it has no bark. Minus a few points for being hard to cut and bent so it doesn't fit snugly in the tin. It also had a lot flame wheas the grape done at the same time had none. The grape vine was dry, the arbutus fell down about a month or so ago.

Soft charcoal, darkest so far, some crumble, snaps easily.   Smudge with finger least of all.  It's almost an oily texture to it.

Blue undertones

Grape
The length between the nodes is the limiting factor preparing these.  Taking the bark off is a hassle.  There is a much smaller range of thickness possible.  This year's growth is easier to cut, but it seems to make better charcoal if left to dry a few months before cutting to final length and putting in the tin.  When dry, we can roll the sticks in our hands and much of the bark comes off.  But it's not as bothersome to leave the bark on as it flakes off the charcoal when we open the tin.  

Since I have to prune this back every year, it's a renewable source.  But the extra labor of having to cut each side of the node makes prepping thismtwice as much work as willow.

Very easy to pack tight in the tin due to straight and small sticks.

Most crumbling of the charcoal so far. Lightest black.  But most neutral black, with a slight purple lean.  Smudges easily, almost to the point of erased.

Willow
My personal favourite so far for ease of prep, renewability, and ease of use for a novice.

If you get the timing right, the bark will practically leap off freshly cut willow branches.  But that's usually late spring and I'm making charcoal mid winter when the bark is determined to stay with the stick. It really does make things easier to take the bark off at harvest time, as getting bark off the charcoal sticks is messy.  I scrape the bark with a knife within an hour or less of harvest, and it's pretty easy.  We can use weeping willow, or in my case, coppiced basket willow.

It doesn't seem to matter if I have fresh or dry sticks for making charcoal.  Either way, I constantly underestimated how much heat they need and will have some branches that look like charcoal but won't draw well.  More even heat and hotter, like the glowing embers from Douglas fir bark, are perfect.

The ones that do work are wonderful to draw with.  Just like commercial willow charcoal.  They can snap with pressure but crumble least of the three.  There is also less dust.

Easy to smudge.  Very red leaning black.

None of these have a functional spellchecker.  A bit like my computer at the moment.  

r ransom wrote:Would mulberry work?

Looks like it is worth trying
https://shop.remaimodern.org/products/kentridge-mulberry-charcoal?srsltid=AfmBOopvhsSYOjITghO2wxCqvzOwyh30a3VzDxxz9K3zsk_WACIIiWwB

...this box of charcoal sticks is handmade by Simon Attwood, who has been making William's favourite charcoal for use in his practice for many years. Made from sustainably sourced Sesbania, Erythrina and Mulberry.

About a dollar a gram....hmmmm.... i can make 40 to 100 grams a night... am I missing out on a viable income source?

r ransom wrote: Arbutus
Preparation wise, arbutus wins hands down as it has no bark. Minus a few points for being hard to cut and bent so it doesn't fit snugly in the tin. It also had a lot flame whereas the grape done at the same time had none.

Arbutus is naturally high in creosote, so that may account for both the flames and the greasy feel.

I'm not surprised you found it hard to cut. The bent part might be useful if it fits your hand well, and if you're only producing it for yourself +/-special friends, if you like using it, having to run extra cans through the process takes a bit of time, but in your woodstove, not a lot of extra resources.

Grape
Most crumbling of the charcoal so far. Lightest black.  But most neutral black, with a slight purple lean.  Smudges easily, almost to the point of erased.

This doesn't surprise me. One year growth on my grape vines is very wimpy material. It almost seems to be a bit hollow in the center. The drawing charcoal I recall my mother using was very short - I thought that was normal, but maybe it was a specific technique she was using? Or maybe what I'm remembering was a different medium?

I can imagine the crumbling aspect would make it a very messy art form!

Willow
My personal favourite so far for ease of prep, renewability, and ease of use for a novice.

I'm assuming you've read up on this subject? You have only mentioned deciduous trees and we have had a lot of Doug Fir branches down in recent storms, and it's the time of year that Cedar drop a lot of their short curved branches as well.

I also have a Portuguese Laurel that's on my hit list for a serious pruning to give my baby Monkey Puzzle tree a bit more space. Not sure how broad leaf evergreen trees would work. They're a fruiting tree like a grape vine.

It does sound as if a variety of woods would make for interesting undertones and textures - but more work to keep them organized as well!

r ransom wrote: About a dollar a gram....hmmmm.... i can make 40 to 100 grams a night... am I missing out on a viable income source?

If the money is worth your time, my area has a lot of artists. Saltspring Isle in BC, Canada is extremely well known for its summer markets and artists. I wonder if anyone is producing local drawing charcoal there? Some people are paying much more attention to where things are made, how sustainably, and how locally. However, selling means packaging and it would be a shame if the package costs 100 times more than the product?

Trees also grow really well in my area, so growing a variety of raw material such as Mulberry and Willow seems easy, and if Laurel works, it needs regular pruning also, so I don't imagine a problem with that side of the sustainability would be a problem. There are areas where I've seen lots of Arbutus growing, but I'm guessing it grows slower than the other materials you've tried.

It's funny, I have read everything the library has to say on this topic at least fivs times, and yet, my retention on this subject is practically nill.  I'm very grateful to record my observations here so I have an external memory source.

Also, this is pretty cool!

For some reason, I have this in my brain:  "Drawing charcoal is made from fast growing deciduous only due to oil or something "

There is no citation associated with this sentence so I don't know if it's accurate. It just rattles around in the memory box like charcoal dust (some people have a memory palace, I have a memory basement overflowing with  occasionally labled boxes)

r ransom wrote:Manzanita seems to mean different trees depending how far north or south we are.  I'm pretty sure most of them are what we call arbutus (arbutus menziesii) or close enough.  Strawberry tree is another common name in the pacific northwest. (Although some Strawberry trees and manzanita also reference different trees and bushes, it seems more a classification in the vernacular than a specific cultivar - like tomatoesa are to cherry tomatoes)

The names are confusing.

But the wood should be close enough that arbutus menziesii is worth a try.  Thanks for the suggestion.

A tangent from the super interesting charcoal discussion, because it was mentioned…

Well to clear things up, here is a bit of explanation to differentiate  common usage words from the actual plants.
I’m aware that in Canada ‘manzanita’ might be a general name for a few of the different genera in the family Ericoideae and sub-family Arbutoideae. And ‘Madrone’ can refer to a variety of species in that family too. USA calls ‘Madrone’ a variety of different Madrone-like trees as well.

Here are the actual plants:

Manzanita is the genus Arctostaphylos.
Manzanita species - they are native to Western North America and many of them grow in California, but they go from western Canada down through Mexico, and there are many species and variants.

In size they range from groundcover (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi or ‘Bearberry’, being the most well known medicinally) to small bushes to rangey shrubs to small shrubby trees. They generally are moderate to fast growing and are myccorhyzal support species for Oaks in particular. Very drought tolerant compared to Madrones and Strawberry trees. They have small (less than dime-sized) firm fruits that are considered ‘edible’ but don’t taste that good and may be more medicinal than anything. They have *small*, rounded, thicker, fleshy, leaves that range from green to grey (usually a measure of the extent of their drought tolerance, which is considerable).
Their leaves are always held stiffly upwards.


Madrone is the genus Arbutus, commonly Arbutus menziesii.
They are native to Western North America. They appear to be more commonly in Northern parts of CA and especially Oregon, Washington, and BC Canada.
Madrones are related to Manzanitas, being in the same subfamily, but not the same genus, and they look quite different from Manazitas. Madrones are real trees, GIANT trees, even keystone tree species. Madrones grow *very* slowly.
They have long, big, dark green, smoothed, thin leaves, that turn downward, not held vertically; and very small, firmer, dime-sized, copious, but less tasty fruits.


Strawberry Trees - these are related to Madrones, in that they have the same genus name, but are significantly different.
They are not directly related to Madrones (North American Arbutus genera) and not native to North America at all, though many folks grow them here. They are native to the European Mediterranean and Ireland.

They are smaller, shrubby, but neat trees, and have longer, pointier, thicker, fleshier (than Madrone) but toothed-edge leaves, that are held somewhat upward, unlike true Madrones, and not really close to a true Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp) at all either, which have much smaller smooth rounded, much thicker, and fleshier leaves that are sometimes even grey.
A defining feature, in my mind, of Strawberry trees is their large *very edible*, copious fruits.

There are three varieties of Strawberry tree: Arbutus unedo (the most common one found in North America)  Arbutus andrachne, and Arbutus canariensis (all 3 are native to west Europe and Mediterranean basin).
But again, Strawberry trees are a much smaller species than Madrones (Arbutus menziesii) and the fruits are very different yet again from either of the above Madrone and Manzanita. They are soft, fleshy, sweet - a bit like an apricot in texture and taste, but with an outer, softly spikey “coat” (which is eaten along with the flesh). In appearance they look like a red, spiky, hanging ball, about quarter-sized.

I enclose photos of all three types of trees, leaves and fruit, discussed above.

r ransom wrote:

Grape
The length between the nodes is the limiting factor preparing these.  Taking the bark off is a hassle.  There is a much smaller range of thickness possible.  This year's growth is easier to cut, but it seems to make better charcoal if left to dry a few months before cutting to final length and putting in the tin.  When dry, we can roll the sticks in our hands and much of the bark comes off.  But it's not as bothersome to leave the bark on as it flakes off the charcoal when we open the tin.  

Since I have to prune this back every year, it's a renewable source.  But the extra labor of having to cut each side of the node makes prepping thismtwice as much work as willow.

Very easy to pack tight in the tin due to straight and small sticks.

Most crumbling of the charcoal so far. Lightest black.  But most neutral black, with a slight purple lean.  Smudges easily, almost to the point of erased.  

I wonder if the grape sticks could be tumbled with sand to speed up the debarking. I had a rock tumbler when I was a kid and something like this might work.