It is useful in doing studies where much finish is desired, to fix the work slightly when drawn in and carried some way on.  You can work over this again without continually rubbing out with your hand what you have already drawn.  If necessary you can rub out with a hard piece of rubber any parts that have already been fixed, or even scrape with a pen-knife.  But this is not advisable for anything but an academic study, or working drawings, as it spoils the beauty and freshness of charcoal work.  Studies done in this medium can also be finished with Conte chalk.

There is also an artificial charcoal put up in sticks, that is very good for refined work.  It has some advantages over natural charcoal, in that there are no knots and it works much more evenly.  The best natural charcoal I have used is the French make known as “Fusain Rouget.”  It is made in three degrees, No. 3 being the softest, and, of course, the blackest.  But some of the ordinary Venetian and vine charcoals sold are good.  But don’t get the cheaper varieties:  a bad piece of charcoal is worse than useless.

Charcoal is fixed by means of a solution of white shellac dissolved in spirits of wine, blown on with a spray diffuser.  This is sold by the artists’ colourmen, or can be easily made by the student.  It lightly deposits a thin film of shellac over the work, acting as a varnish and preventing its rubbing off.

Charcoal is not on the whole the medium an artist with a pure love of form selects, but rather that of the painter, who uses it when his brushes and paints are not handy.

[Sidenote:  Red Chalk (Sanguine).]

A delightful medium that can be used for either pure line work or a mixed method of drawing, is red chalk.  This natural red earth is one of the most ancient materials for drawing.  It is a lovely Venetian red in colour, and works well in the natural state, if you get a good piece.  It is sold by the ounce, and it is advisable to try the pieces as they vary very much, some being hard and gritty and some more soft and smooth.  It is also made by Messrs. Conte of Paris in sticks artificially prepared.  These work well and are never gritty, but are not so hard as the natural chalk, and consequently wear away quickly and do not make fine lines as well.

Red chalk when rubbed with the finger or a rag spreads evenly on paper, and produces a middle tone on which lights can be drawn with rubber or bread.  Sticks of hard, pointed rubber are everywhere sold, which, cut in a chisel shape, work beautifully on red chalk drawings.  Bread is also excellent when a softer light is wanted.  You can continually correct and redraw in this medium by rubbing it with the finger or a rag, thus destroying the lights and shadows to a large extent, and enabling you to draw them again more carefully.  For this reason red chalk is greatly to be recommended for making drawings for a picture where much fumbling may be necessary before you find what you want.  Unlike charcoal, it hardly needs fixing, and much more intimate study of the forms can be got into it.