No.35 Powdered Mediums— in Motion

Video: Putting water-soluble graphite and charcoal through their paces

Close-up of some water-soluble charcoal powder applied to paper with a brush and a bamboo pen, The granulation is fantastic!

I spent an hour or so playing with some new mediums— or, I should say, old mediums in the form of water-soluble powder— one of which I mentioned in my last post.

I recorded footage of both of these in action, using a few different tools. In the video below, you can see some of what they can do, which I talk through a bit. I used the graphite powder on plain paper and used charcoal powder on both plain and gessoed paper. I worked with a flat 1” brush (soft), a bamboo pen, a liner brush, a comb brush, a water spray bottle, cotton swabs (wet), and baby wipes.

SAFETY NOTE: I worked with these powders in a gel form mixed with water, and wore a mask when handling the dry powder. ONLY after they were thoroughly mixed did I remove my mask!

If you’re interested in trying these yourself, these link to the maker. They’re available through retailers as well.
Cretacolor Graphite Powder, and Cretacolor Charcoal Powder.

This photo shows more testing of the charcoal powder, this time on paper primed with a single coat of gesso. The gesso allows scraping away of the pigment, and it granulated far less on this— but that may be in part because it was not as watery as on the unprimed paper.

Here’s a few of the panels in my concertina sketchbook where I was playing with the powdered graphite, as seen in the video.

I’ve really enjoyed playing with these mediums, and appreciate the way they ‘hold onto’ brush strokes so well. I’m not sure yet in what ways they might find their way into my art yet, but I think they could partner well with ink, or with pencil. And certainly with charcoal— but that’s a medium I haven’t used very much recently. Maybe it’s time to.

As mentioned in may last post, I learned about the graphite powder in a workshop run by the fabulous Mrs Bertimus, hosted at Hope & Elvis.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve worked with these mediums— and post some images of what you’ve made with them!

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x Liz