Art VLOG: Fixing Charcoal in Mixed Media Painting

Charlotte Wensley
Nov 23, 2023
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

At this year's Noosa Open Studios I think the most commonly asked questions were about incorporating pencil and charcoal in mixed media work.

Selection of pencils and a bottle of matte medium on top of a sketch

So I thought I'd share a quick summary and a demonstration video about how I set these types of charcoal marks so that they stay put and don't keep smudging as the work progresses!

I use lots of different types of pencils, most commonly charcoal in various grades; Soft, Medium and Hard. I also have woodless graphite/woodless charcoal and everyday HB pencils handy too.

I vary my choice of pencil depending on what I want to achieve. So for a really smudgy line, I'd use a soft charcoal or a 6B - 8B graphite pencil. For less smudging and more definition I'd use a Medium charcoal pencil or 2B graphite. And for a clear and distinct line or tiny hand-drawn details I'll often use a Hard charcoal or HB pencil.

Fixative spray will work for a time, but I find it tends to give way when I come to apply an isolation coat of matte varnish with a brush, once the piece is finished. So it's a little unreliable fix when using charcoal in mixed media.

Enter a piece of Chux cloth and some matte medium or matte varnish!

I use a matte version of these mediums so that I can continue to add paint and more pencil over the top once it's dry. I find gloss medium creates a finish that is too shiny and slippery to work on if I want to add more pencil work over the top.

This video takes you through a selection of my favourite pencils and how they smudge before setting them with the medium, how I apply the medium without disturbing the marks, applying the medium with a brush, a quick smudge test once the medium is dry and finally how I've applied medium to the pencil marks in my 'Sky Ripples' sketch.