Kids love playing with charcoal. They love the way a piece can be big, but feel so light. They're delighted by the bold blacks marks it can easily make. The various thicknesses and forms it comes in is also pretty interesting. I'll show you what we did with our charcoal drawings, but there are so many things you can add or different ways you can do it. (blending sticks, different types/colors of paper, charcoal pencils, creating a mixed media piece by letting them add other mediums like paint, markers, oil pastels, conte crayons, etc.)
The supply list is pretty simple:
Charcoal sticks.
Paper.
Paper: I would recommend some sort of paper with at least a little bit of texture and thickness. (not printer/copier paper) You can use actual charcoal drawing paper, some sort of watercolor paper, or even just a nice drawing paper like we used. Even construction paper would work.
Charcoal: We used big pieces of square tipped charcoal sticks made from "northwest hardwood" and a thinner round shaped charcoal stick made from willow branches.
When drawing with kids, tape their paper down with a little masking tape. That way they can fully focus on their work and not have to be distracted by the paper slipping around.
And then just let them loose to do their thing! No instruction required.
A little piano or classical music in the background is always a nice addition.
For their second drawing I gave them each a small jar of water and a paint brush so they could play around with brushing water over their charcoal drawing marks. They found it quite delightful.
Let dry, if water was used, and then lightly mist with some sort of fixative. You can use anything from a high end acrylic spray varnish down to hair spray. Let the drawings air out in a well ventilated area.
