Schmincke Liquid Charcoal

When I was in college, I loved working with charcoal. With my studio located in our home, it is just too dusty so I was excited when I saw liquid charcoal liquid was available. The only thing is that when it dries it is a little gritty but you can get really dark darks with it. I squeezed it into a small mint tin so that I can use it like watercolour pan paint.

Schmincke Kohle Liquid charcoals in 35 ml tube – a clean, dust-free way of painting, charcoal drawing and underpainting with charcoal. The three pigments of natural origin used for this (PBK 8, pit black) are created by charring fruit seeds from the EU area and result in the following unique coal nuances:

• a neutral peach stone black – 18 757
• a warm, brownish cherry pit black – 18 756
• a cool, bluish grape seed black – 18 755

Due to the larger quantity of available paint, liquid charcoal can be used to quickly cover large areas. The liquid charcoal contains the high-quality binder gum arabic like traditional artists’ watercolours, has a gouache-like consistency and can be diluted with water, so that different shades, structures and layer thicknesses can be achieved by different application. Depending on the substrate and the thickness of the layer, it can be wiped off by hand and removed with water. Used as thin underpainting (e.g. in oil painting), subsequent paints do not become dirty or become less dirty than with conventional charcoal underpainting due to the higher adhesion of the bound carbon pigments to the substrate.
Of course, the liquid charcoal can be combined with drawing charcoal. The blurring and removability of these paints depends on the substrate’s surface. The more even and firm the surface is, the easier to change the charcoal’s application. We recommend testing before use.
All three colours are available in 35 ml tubes, as well as a limited edition set of three small tubes.