Artists’ charcoal is a form of dry art medium made of finely grounded organic materials that are held together by a gum or wax binder; which can also be produced without the use of binders by eliminating the oxygen inside the material during the production process.
These charcoals are often used by artists for their versatile properties such as the rough texture that leaves marks less permanent than other art media. It can produce lines that are very light or intensely black while being easily removable and vulnerable to leave stains on paper.
The dry medium can be applied to almost any surface from smooth to a very coarse. Fixatives are often used with charcoal drawings to solidify the positions to prevent erasing or rubbing off of charcoal dusts.
The method to create artists’ charcoal is much similar to that of charcoal used throughout different types of fields such as producing gunpowder and cooking fuel. Therefore the type of wood material and preparation method allows different variation of charcoal to be produced.