When it comes to making art, charcoal is a classic for many reasons. It’s dark and black and feels pretty awesome to draw with. There are different types of charcoal- willow/vine, stick, compressed.

Willow is exactly what it says, thin willow twigs are carbonized. It’s the softest and grayest of the charcoal. It’s used for under drawings for paintings and figure studies.

Vine is also like willow, exactly what is says it is. It’s pieces of vines, usually grape, that is carbonized. It’s also extremely soft and pale.

Stick is a harder wood, usually thin sticks that have been carbonized. This is generally darker and harder than vine and willow charcoal.

Compressed charcoal is the most complicated charcoal. It’s a harder material carbonized and then turned to a fine powder. This is then  mixed with a binder and compressed into stick form. This is the darkest of the charcoals offered and can be sold is various degrees of hardness much like a regular pencil.

Charcoal can be made by the artist (that means you!) pretty easily and inexpensively if you have access to a few things- a fire pit, grill, or fireplace. You will also need a tin of some sort.

If you have a dollar tree near you they have several snacks available in tins or they sell tins that work perfectly for this purpose. In the holiday section they sell good sized metal tins that are decorated for the holidays they are available in 2 sizes and hold a lot of material in a good length. In the snack section they have a tin of rolled wafer cookies that is a great size for making willow and vine charcoal. They also have butter cookie tins that are great for making charcoal out of smaller materials or oddly shaped materials. In the office supply and back to school supply section they often sell metal pencil boxes that are great for making charcoal, however they don’t hold as much as the other tins mentioned.

I am using small tea tins that hold about a half pint of materials.

Please note that the initial burning process will burn off the paint and lacquer on these tins and will smell terrible. It is best to do the initial burn outside. The tins will be ruined after this process and can only be used for making charcoal.

For each type of tin you’ll need to prep your materials to fit. This means chopping things down to size and packing them into the tin. I try to pack as much as I can into the tin so I get the most bang for my buck. In this case the buck is time and effort. The packing of the tin is the most amount of effort. Even that with kitchen shears or garden trimmers can be pretty low effort.

For the tins I’ve mentioned here, the lids have a loose but snug fit, this is perfect. It allows the gases to escape but doesn’t allow the flames into the tin. If you have something with a lid that is more snug, like a paint can, you will need to poke a hole in the top.

For willow, wine, and stick charcoal you may wish to prepare the sticks and twigs before carbonizing. Older bark will form a hard layer of charcoal that is much harder and darker than the inner parts of the sticks and twigs. Buds and offshoots will also form very hard areas inside the final charcoal and will cause issues like cracks and breaks when drawing. Those areas can be so hard that they can damage paper.

If the lids are too loose you’ll need to use wire to keep them on. I’ve seen a few instructions where people use screws to hold lids in place.

Once you have your tin packed. Place it into the fire. I generally put mine into the coals and then build up and around it. Then I wait.

​If you heat your home with a wood furnace you can place the tin in the furnace and go about your day. This is what I do. I load a tin up, place it in the burn chamber, and either go to bed or go to work.

Depending on your fire situation and the size of the tin and the size of the materials you are carbonizing the time for the contents to carbonize can vary. A minimum is 30 minutes over a hot fire. I generally put my stuff in the fire and leave it for hours. The longer you can wait the better.

When you think your stuff might be ready get some tongs and get it out of the fire and outside. Let it cool off before opening. If everything isn’t fully black, reseal and put it back into the fire. If it’s all black, yay!

Once cool, open it up and reveal your charcoal. YAY!

​What you have carbonized will determine how you can use it. If you have carbonized willow, vine or sticks you can really use it right away. For other materials, you would need to figure out how you want to use it.

I am carbonizing coffee grounds. This is already a pretty fine powder but I grind it down further and then mix it with gum arabic and methyl cellulose (wheat starch based binder and glue) to make paint and sticks for drawing. I’m also using it to color some papercrete and as an additive for my recycled paper briquettes.

I have detailed this before but it is hard to get carbonized coffee grounds down to a fine enough powder to make watercolors or other paints. In my opinion lamp black is another better and easier alternative. That said, it works well for making charcoal sticks and powder for drawing. It is also really great for adding to papercrete as an additive or colorant.

It is of course important to note that when you are carbonizing, the materials push out gases that are flammable, and don’t smell great, and are probably toxic. Generally when I’m making charcoal it’s in a sealed burn chamber that exhausts to outside. Or in a open air firepit where the air is constantly moving and not being trapped. Do this at your own discretion and use caution and care for your own safety.