Artist of the Year 2025: Masterclass - Season 1 Episode 38Creating Textures in Charcoal L...
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00:00Today's tutor is Stuart Jarvis, who first caught our attention in 2020 with his charcoal
00:18submission for Landscape Artist of the Year, which earned him a place in the competition.
00:23Yeah, it's a very vigorous drawing.
00:26It's charcoal which lends itself to be worked and scrubbed down, which gives the whole thing
00:30this dynamism.
00:32This has got a brutality about it in the way they've attacked the paper with the charcoal.
00:36It's really powerful.
00:39At the heat, his bold drawing of Chartwell House in Kent landed him in the final three.
00:44The second artist on the shortlist is Stuart Jarvis.
00:51A champion of charcoal, it is only fitting that Stuart is leading today's masterclass,
00:57creating textures in charcoal landscapes.
01:21Today, I'm going to be demonstrating different techniques of drawing using just the rubber
01:27and charcoal.
01:29Charcoal is often misunderstood as a complicated and messy medium, but today I'm going to show
01:35you different techniques and tips on how to use a really expressive and versatile medium.
01:41What I like to do is firstly to stand up at my easel.
01:45That's really important for me to kind of get this expressive motion.
01:49I don't want to be too close because I don't feel as though I can capture the whole mood
01:53of the piece simultaneously in one.
01:56I have my reference photograph next to me at the same height as the paper so I can easily
02:01cross-reference any of these details over to the paper.
02:07Firstly, I'm going to use a piece, a short piece of kind of fat charcoal.
02:12I'm going to hold it flush against the paper.
02:15I'm going to create what's called a charcoal ground.
02:20Cover the entire sheet of the paper with the charcoal ground.
02:30Oops.
02:32And then once you've done that, you then need to work the charcoal into the surface of the paper
02:38because at the moment it's just sitting across the top and could just be easily moved around.
02:50The importance of the ground is twofold really.
02:54Firstly, it takes away that intimidating nature of that white page.
02:59Secondly, the charcoal ground is really important for operating as a mid-tone.
03:05It means that we can go both lighter in value and darker in value as well.
03:10So we're not just starting at the lighter values and going darker but we're somewhere in between.
03:16To start with, you need a reference photograph.
03:19And I've chosen this photograph because of its broad range of tonal values.
03:25It's a powerful image of a winter morning underneath Spaghetti Junction.
03:29In the background, these flyovers offer us a mid-tone from which this beautiful skeletal
03:35kind of architectural foliage is presented in front of it.
03:39And then dominating the composition is this large pillar filled full of graffiti.
03:44I'm really looking forward to tackling that in today's lesson.
03:48Each one of these different elements offers us a different opportunity to experiment with texture.
03:54And I'll show you some of those techniques as the drawing unfolds.
03:58Firstly, I'm going to ghost out the composition.
04:01And ghosting means drawing but drawing at a really light level.
04:05Drawing in a way that's kind of really forgiving.
04:08So if I do make a mistake, I can just quickly rub it out.
04:11Not even with a rubber actually, just the back of my hand and just start again.
04:15So to start the ghosting off, I'm looking at this diagonal line that intersects through
04:20the edge of the corner of the paper over here.
04:22And I'm holding the charcoal flush against the page and I'm creating this lovely straight line.
04:26Now you can draw a straight line just with the tip of the charcoal.
04:29But you'll find that really difficult.
04:32Holding it flush keeps that line really straight.
04:42Okay, so just get a basic understanding of the proportions.
04:45I can start with this kind of major mark here, which for me,
04:50kind of separates out from the rest of the composition, this point.
04:54And it's worth then getting that as kind of like an anchor point for the rest of the photograph.
04:59It appears in my photograph about a third of the way down.
05:04So let's just check that on my composition over here.
05:07And yeah, that appears about a third. I'm happy with that.
05:11Music
05:24I've got my composition mapped out.
05:26So I'm now at the stage now where I'm ready to apply light tone.
05:31For the lightest areas, I'm going to go to my next trusted medium and that is rubber.
05:37And I'm using two different types of rubber.
05:39I'm using the classroom rubber and the faithful putty rubber.
05:43I'm going to show you different types of marks that these make on the drawing itself.
05:49Now, where do I apply those light areas of tone?
05:54Well, obviously in the negative space in the background, light sky penetrating through the composition.
06:01But I can also see that there are really light areas, white areas almost,
06:06within these concrete platforms and actually also on the right-hand side of the pillar as well.
06:12So let's start up here with the classroom rubber and use the hard edge of that to create this hard, sharp mark
06:21across the edge of that concrete pillar over here or the concrete upright.
06:28And you can see that it creates kind of like a hatching mark,
06:32but also this lovely straight edge to it as well.
06:36Now, I'm not going to use all of this rubber in all of that area because it leaves like a residue across the surface of it.
06:43And you can blow that off or just brush that off.
06:46That's a price that we pay for using this rubber and that's something that the putty rubber will not do.
06:51It stays together really, really well, but just doesn't give us that sharp edge.
06:56Make a mark and you can see that it goes from lighter slightly to darker over here.
07:01And that's because the charcoal occupies the surface of that putty rubber.
07:05And I just need to bend it over and find a new spot to start working back over again.
07:11So I'm going to do that in all of the other areas to begin with.
07:16And that's our next job is just to ensure that we've got all of those elements down.
07:31I also want to give a sense of form of this column.
07:35And that's helped by these dripping paint marks or dripping marks on the surface of it.
07:39So I'm going to drag my rubber over the surface, just corresponding to those areas that are light.
07:45And just work those into the surface to begin with.
07:53I'm happy we've where I've placed all of those light tones.
07:57Now we need to consider the darkest areas of tone.
08:00I come over to my tonal chart and notice that this mid-tone here is what I've already established down.
08:08Now we can't go to the darkest tonal area, number 5, because that actually is a double layer of charcoal.
08:16Firstly, with a fixative spray that grips the charcoal to the surface of the paper.
08:21Once it's dried, I can then work another charcoal layer over the top.
08:26And it goes this really rich, dark tone.
08:29But we're going to go to this level here first and then work over the fixative on areas of my composition where I feel tonal area number 5 is needed.
08:39So let's work really broadly, much like we did the rubber, across the whole composition where we feel tonal gradient number 4 is situated.
08:49So I'm going to start identifying those areas now.
08:52Firstly, let's just get the darkest we can possibly get down with just the willow charcoal itself.
09:06Now you're going to lose some of the ghosting, you're going to lose some of those lines.
09:10You're going to have to be prepared to do that.
09:12Don't worry about that, that will come back.
09:15What really emphasises the point about layering with charcoal is that one veil goes over the other, goes over the other, and it slowly emerges.
09:24It's almost like it's coming towards us out of a veil of fog, as if we're entering into the composition.
09:30It slowly starts to crystallise and detail as the drawing evolves.
09:46Apart from the top area up here, which I'm going to return to later on, all of the tone has been established.
09:54It's not accurate, but it's where I want it to be and we've started to understand the different levels of the landscape from foreground to background.
10:03And now I'm going to get to the really exciting bit about adding texture. I'm really looking forward to this.
10:09The first part I want to do is establish these skeletal trees, but I must make sure that these roads in the background are where I want them to be.
10:20Because once I start establishing these architectural winter trees, I'm not going to be able to return to that background because they'll be covered.
10:28So it's going to be really difficult for me to do that.
10:31So what I'm going to do is introduce a new tool, and this is a blending stick.
10:36And it's wrapped around condensed paper and it will allow me to work charcoal into finer areas that perhaps my fingertips wouldn't allow me to do.
10:55I'm interested in finding that level of detail within these background flyovers.
11:00And you can see that there's a darker underbelly to each of these roads, and then there's a lighter top that has these parallel lines running across it.
11:08At the moment I don't have that, so I'm just going to work the charcoal in again, and always apply the charcoal first.
11:16And then we can use the blending stick to just work those hatching marks into the surface.
11:24I'll come back to those parallel lines up here and up here shortly.
11:29Let's come down to the bottom flyover and work those marks in here.
11:34Notice fingertips, marks, accidental areas that I've inadvertently put across the composition.
11:42Don't worry about those. That tightening, that refreshing, that refining can all take place later on.
11:53Now it's the time for me to be able to establish some really crisp textured mark making.
11:58So bring some of the natural form in over the top of this area of the composition.
12:04I'm going to do that with a relatively thin piece of willow charcoal.
12:09And I'm going to hold it up vertically to the paper.
12:12I'm going to use that kind of dragging technique, which allows me to be able to pull the charcoal down into position.
12:20As I come down, dragging these marks down, I'm actually just pushing slightly harder as they get towards their base.
12:30What that does, it sort of adds this kind of tapering effect, where obviously the top of the tree is generally finer, more intricate, thinner, and thicker towards the trunk itself at the bottom.
12:49Now the really fine ones at the top is this opportunity for me to now change charcoal.
13:04And I'm actually going to use a different grade of charcoal.
13:07And this one's much finer. It's not willow charcoal, but it's a much lighter type of charcoal.
13:13It's actually in a square format.
13:16And this allows me to have really light marks at the top.
13:20And by using the edge of this charcoal, I'm able, again, flush, just to create these really soft marks at the top.
13:31This area up here on the reference photograph is a really complicated mass of branches over here.
13:37And I feel like to draw every single one of those branches is just really unnecessary.
13:42So I'm just going to try and create a little cloud, if you like, brushing the charcoal across the surface and just working that in with my fingertip.
13:51And then I'm going to start to just work some marks over the top of that.
13:56What I love about drawing it from the urban environment, and in this case underneath Spaghetti Junction, is this wonderful sense of hostility.
14:07It's a cold, sometimes intimidating place.
14:11What I love about drawing it from the urban environment, and in this case underneath Spaghetti Junction, is this wonderful sense of hostility.
14:21It's a cold, sometimes intimidating place.
14:25But out of it, you get this wonderful beauty and this kind of brutalist beauty to it as well.
14:31There's extraordinary shapes, extraordinary shadows.
14:35And whilst there's not many people around, that sense of isolation around these enormous structures can be awe-inspiring.
14:43Having just finished the trees, even they seem to be absent of life.
14:47This wonderful kind of structure and this playoff between these different textures now takes us to the point where we're interested in our centerpiece, our kind of main act.
14:57And in this column, we've got this wonderful playoff of different graffiti.
15:02And we're really interested in almost developing a new type of drawing language that represents the graffiti but doesn't read it out.
15:11So the way I'm going to do that first is just using some willow charcoal across the surface.
15:16And I'm almost going to do it like a continuous line.
15:19I'm not interested in drawing, as I said, each individual letter out.
15:23But I'm just going to make these random marks and just flow over the surface.
15:32I'm now going to push back that letter in.
15:53And I'm going to use the classroom rubber to do that.
15:57Following on with the column and the form, you'll notice if you just brush it over the surface, it just takes away the clarity of that line and just pushes it back so it dissolves into the column.
16:18I love this part. I love the blurring effect that you can create.
16:24Return to the charcoal again and let's work over another layer.
16:43OK, I'm ready, I think, for one of my favorite bits now.
16:46It's time to return to the rubber, but we're not going to use the classroom rubber or the putty rubber.
16:52But instead, we're going to use two different retractable pen erasers.
16:59And they've got slightly different ends to them.
17:02You can see one is really fine, and it really is for the finest of details.
17:07And then another one, which is kind of more blocky and square.
17:10So I'm going to start working these into this area over here, this natural form area.
17:18Try and hold it like a paintbrush between your fingertips, just like you were the charcoal, and allow marks to be able to kind of drag across the surface.
17:28Notice as well that when I'm dragging this across the surface, if I rotate it, I get more of a naturally occurring, softer, wavier, meandering line.
17:41Now I'm going to put the pen eraser away for a minute, because it's the putty rubber we need to develop more texture in the column.
17:57I'm just going to point it slightly, so I get this kind of slightly sharper edge to it.
18:02And I'm going to do almost the same that I did with the charcoal, but now with a putty rubber.
18:07So think less of it as an eraser, more of a drawing tool to help us understand some of this texture in here.
18:14Just trying to identify some of these lighter pockets that kind of form the spaces between some of the lettering.
18:23And making those marks, just really trying to get like a gestural sort of sweep across it.
18:37We're coming towards the end of the drawing, and what I want to do at this stage is apply fixative to this area at the top to make it go even darker.
18:53So that will reach our grade 5 tone on the chart over here.
18:59Now, the problem with fixative is that as soon as you apply it down, you cannot rub that area out.
19:06So you've got to be pretty sure that where you're applying the fixative down, you're not going to need the rubber ever again.
19:13The reason why I'm using fixative is I want to grip all of that dark charcoal to the paper for me to then return a new layer over the top.
19:22But I'm not quite finished with some of the sky, so I'm going to keep the sky as it is, but protect it with my drawing tool here.
19:31And then spray using the fixative over that area here, protecting the sky.
19:36So I'm going to come back to that. I want to make that a little bit lighter in a minute.
19:39So I'm just going to put that over, and I'm just going to spray a little area over here, protect the sky here, and then just work it in.
19:47Make sure you're spraying it in a really well-ventilated area, keep the windows open.
19:51Or just run outside and spray it, and then run back into the studio.
19:56So I feel pretty confident that that is going to grip now, so I'm going to carry on with the drawing.
20:00So let's draw that straight line in to begin with.
20:03We're looking at our reference photograph over here.
20:06So just draw that in, and then just work the charcoal in over the top.
20:10This is the fun bit where actually you can leave the hatching marks in.
20:14Remember first I held the charcoal flush to the paper.
20:17I don't want you to do that now. I want you to use these hatching marks.
20:21Because this is expressive, it is a versatile medium.
20:24This is the type of marks we should be leaving across the surface.
20:42I think it's only fitting that the last part of the drawing is this sunburst coming through.
20:49So firstly I'm just going to work and make sure I get that beautiful light coming out from the background.
20:59I'm just going to work a little bit into these trees as well.
21:03I need to establish where the centre of that flare is.
21:07And I'm going to try using my straight edge to see if I can get that dart of light.
21:14Just using the putty rubber alone and just kind of work it along it.
21:18Yeah, that's quite good. I'm quite pleased with that.
21:21So let's find that centre point again and just pull away.
21:25And just rotate and use that centre point as a pivot.
21:29Just pull away from that.
21:38The final texture.
21:44I'm really happy with the drawing that I've created and I hope I've shown you just how versatile charcoal is.
21:58How expressive it is and how immediate it is.
22:02I hope what this has taught you is that you just need the most basic material.
22:06Just a few pieces of charcoal and a few rubbers and a piece of paper.
22:10So why don't you get yourself out there in the urban environment and give it a go yourself.
22:18If you'd like to find out more about these masterclasses, go to our website skyartsartistsoftheyear.tv
22:40www.skyartsartistsoftheyear.tv
23:10www.skyartsartistsoftheyear.tv