Make Carbon Blacks: painting inks & drawing media

Tutors: Sarah Nicholson and Emma Cowan

Discover the satisfying craft of making your own charcoal for drawing and painting in this immersive one-day workshop.

Using foraged plant materials, you will learn how to create artists' charcoal and transform this into a range of beautiful, functional and expressive art materials for drawing and painting. More details below...

Firstly, we will explore suitable raw materials and show you how to make a simple kiln. You will learn how to make a variety of drawing sticks, including a process for creating smudge-proof and waterproof charcoal sticks for mixed media work. You will also make a wooden charcoal stick holder. Weather permitting, we will light an outdoor camp fire to heat our charcoal kiln during the lunch break.

We will then show you how to turn handmade charcoal into rich black inks using natural binders, creating painting inks that are versatile, archival, and full…