silly art question?

Question

how and why would one go about using water on pencil and charcoal drawing?

Answer 1

You use water with charcoal the same way you would an ink wash- with a brush. One thing I can recommend is using turpentine instead. You'll get great results! In fact, it's nearly impossible to do a graphite wash with water, due to the dense nature of the medium, but it works beautifully with turps.

At some art supply stores you can buy powdered graphite and charcoal (this is made by the Mona Lisa brand and others). You can mix this with water or turps and paint the same way you would with ink. While this is technically a painting technique, when dry it has a beautiful hand-drawn surface and will have many of your peers saying, "How'd you do that?"

When using water or turps with charcoal or graphite, be sure to use paper of an appropriate weight and texture to avoid buckling.

Answer 2

I sometimes will sketch a pic, then go over it with a light brush with a little water on it in the same diretion of the pecil marks. I do it b/c sometimes the pencil looks to blunt for what I want, and the water makes it flow more. sometime I premeditate that I want to go over it in water, and pencil it so I get exactly what I want in the sketch, and can erase mistakes. it is just a different style.

Answer 3

water (on a brush) can smear the charcoal and make a shade out of it that looks, well, watery, like a black and gray watercolor.
I never do it, but it works.