Artists Tools or “Utensils”

Pencils

pencil cores are made of graphite mixed with a clay binder which leaves grey or black marks that can be easily erased. Prior to 1565 a deposit of graphite was discovered in England- useful for marking sheep. Could easily be sawn into sticks. Substance was thought to be a form of lead. Around 1560, an Italians Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti made the wood-encased carpentry pencil. Shortly thereafter, two wooden halves were carved, a graphite stick inserted, and the halves then glued together—the same method in use to this day.

Grading and classification European system using a continuum from "H" (for hardness) to "B" (for blackness), as well as "F", a letter arbitrarily chosen to indicate midway between HB and H.

Charcoal

Artists' charcoal - dry art medium made of finely grounded ash that is held together by a gum or wax binder; versatile properties producing 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.

Compressed charcoal ( also referred as charcoal sticks) are shaped into a block or stick. Intensity of the shade is determined by hardiness. The amount of gum or wax binders used during the production process affects the hardiness. Soft hardiness leaves intensely black markings while Hard hardiness leave light markings. Vine charcoal are long and thin piece of charcoal stick that are the result of burning sticks or vines in a kiln without air. The removable properties is favored by artists for making preliminary sketches or basic composition. less suitable for creating detailed images. Charcoal pencils are compressed charcoals that are wrapped with a layer of wood. Often used for fine and crisp detailed drawings while keeping the user's hand clean powders are used to create patterns and pouncing, a transferring method of patterns from one surface to another.

In the renaissance Charcoal was widely used but few works of art survived due to charcoal particles flaking off the canvas. At the end of the 15th century a process of submerging the drawings in a gum bath was implemented to prevent the charcoal from flaking away. Charcoal paintings date as far back as ca.23,000 BCE. One of the oldest painting is a picture of a zebra found at the Apollo cave in Namibia. Since then many cultures utilized charcoal for art, camouflage, and in rites of passage. Many indigenous people from Australia, parts of Africa, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, parts of Asia, and others still practice body painting for rites of passage including child birth, weddings, spiritual rituals, war, hunting, and funerary rites. Many artists use charcoal because of its unique dark black strokes. The weak structure of charcoal causes the material to flake off onto the canvas

Conté

Conté, also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a wax or clay base, square in cross-section. invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who created the combination of clay and graphite in response to the shortage of graphite caused by the Napoleonic Wars Conté crayons are most commonly found in black, white, and sanguine tones, as well as bistre, shades of grey, and other colors. They are frequently used on rough paper that holds pigment grains well. They can also be used on prepared primed canvases for underdrawing for a painting. The sticks' square profile make Conté crayons more suitable for detailed hatched work as opposed to the bolder painterly drawing style demanded by soft pastels

Portrait of Paul Signac by Georges Seurat 1880s Conte