<p>Yes, you can mix media. But you need to preserve some of the tooth of your paper's surface to successfully transition from working with graphite to charcoal.</p>
<p>The tooth of your paper determines how well things will catch and hold to the surface of the paper.</p>
<p>As you pass your pencil, or charcoal, across the paper's surface little bits of the drawing tool are abraded and deposited onto the drawing surface. Its the abraded pencil material sitting in the grooves of the paper that form the image. Unlike paint that gets absorbed and wicked into the fibres of the paper the abraded dust particles of your pencil are caught and held by the fibres of the paper. Not absorbed but held in place. This is why very smooth paper doesn't take to pencil very well. A smooth piece of paper won't abrade material off the pencil. No deposited material. No image.</p>
<p>Now the problem with pencils is they are made from a material that can fill and smooth the tooth of the paper quite well. The &quot;graphite&quot; in pencils is made from mixture of graphite and clay. Heavily working your pencil over the paper's surface will cause two things to happen: the tooth of the paper will be worn down and there will be a large deposit of graphite and clay filling the remaining voids in the paper. I have had it happen to me where I have overworked a pencil drawing and the surface of the paper has what almost looks like a mirror finish. The burninshing results in a perfectly smooth surface that nothing can grab onto, not charcoal or paint will stick to these burnished areas.</p>
<p>So in your case if you have been gentle with the application of graphite to the surface of the paper and retained some of the tooth then you should have no worries about working charcoal onto the surface as well.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-07T08:13:53.847Z
can I also recover areas that have been burnished with graphite?
Vincent.W.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-07T11:58:10.030Z
Two options: break the smooth surface and remove some of the clay or apply a material that gives the burnished surface some of its tooth back. What type of paper are you drawing on? If you are working with very thin paper then chipping away at the clay is not an option. Another option is to spray onto your drawing a "workable fixative." These types of coating sprays are made to provide some tooth to surface so more drawing material can be applied. Here's some infor from the Krylon website https://www.krylon.com/pdf/gallery-series/Types%20of%20Fixatives.pdf
John Vukelic
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-07T12:02:57.933Z
I'm working on 170gsm paper with medium tooth.. thanks for pointing out the option with the workable fixative.
Vincent.W.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-04-07T00:52:45.053Z
2020-10-19T13:23:04.780Z
2020-10-19T13:23:04.780Z
John Vukelic
<p>You may want to try Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Drawing Pencils.  They have a high proportion of carbon for matte, jet black results that you can't typically get in purely graphite pencils but handle and sharpen like a graphite pencil--you avoid the mess of charcoal and clumsy handling but should still get the darkness you want. They range from HB to 8B but work well with graphite should you need to mix in some harder leads.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-16T22:35:04.990Z
Hi Lee. You don't really answer the question, and it sounds a little like you're trying to advertize. Do you have experience with this product, and have you tried similar ones?
Joachim
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-16T19:30:21.493Z
2020-10-16T19:30:21.493Z
Lee
<p>I'm drawing an image with quite a large range of tones and I plan to draw the darker tones in charcoal. However, I used a graphite pencil for the preparatory drawing. Is it still possible to draw with charcoal even in an area where graphite has been applied, or do I have to prepare the area before adding the charcoal?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-06T23:18:41.677Z
Interesting question! If you decide to try it out yourself, don't forget to post an answer discussing your experience. :)
Catija
<drawing><pencils><pencil-shading><charcoal>
Is it possible to combine charcoal and graphite in one image?
Vincent.W.
# Is it possible to combine charcoal and graphite in one image?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-04-06)

I'm drawing an image with quite a large range of tones and I plan to draw the darker tones in charcoal. However, I used a graphite pencil for the preparatory drawing. Is it still possible to draw with charcoal even in an area where graphite has been applied, or do I have to prepare the area before adding the charcoal?

**Tags:** drawing, pencils, pencil-shading, charcoal

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Interesting question! If you decide to try it out yourself, don't forget to post an answer discussing your experience. :)  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-04-07. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

Yes, you can mix media. But you need to preserve some of the tooth of your paper's surface to successfully transition from working with graphite to charcoal.

The tooth of your paper determines how well things will catch and hold to the surface of the paper.

As you pass your pencil, or charcoal, across the paper's surface little bits of the drawing tool are abraded and deposited onto the drawing surface. Its the abraded pencil material sitting in the grooves of the paper that form the image. Unlike paint that gets absorbed and wicked into the fibres of the paper the abraded dust particles of your pencil are caught and held by the fibres of the paper. Not absorbed but held in place. This is why very smooth paper doesn't take to pencil very well. A smooth piece of paper won't abrade material off the pencil. No deposited material. No image.

Now the problem with pencils is they are made from a material that can fill and smooth the tooth of the paper quite well. The "graphite" in pencils is made from mixture of graphite and clay. Heavily working your pencil over the paper's surface will cause two things to happen: the tooth of the paper will be worn down and there will be a large deposit of graphite and clay filling the remaining voids in the paper. I have had it happen to me where I have overworked a pencil drawing and the surface of the paper has what almost looks like a mirror finish. The burninshing results in a perfectly smooth surface that nothing can grab onto, not charcoal or paint will stick to these burnished areas.

So in your case if you have been gentle with the application of graphite to the surface of the paper and retained some of the tooth then you should have no worries about working charcoal onto the surface as well.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: can I also recover areas that have been burnished with graphite?  
> **username_2**: Two options: break the smooth surface and remove some of the clay or apply a material that gives the burnished surface some of its tooth back. What type of paper are you drawing on? If you are working with very thin paper then chipping away at the clay is not an option. Another option is to spray onto your drawing a "workable fixative." These types of coating sprays are made to provide some tooth to surface so more drawing material can be applied. Here's some infor from the Krylon website https://www.krylon.com/pdf/gallery-series/Types%20of%20Fixatives.pdf  
> **username_0**: I'm working on 170gsm paper with medium tooth.. thanks for pointing out the option with the workable fixative.  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2020-10-16. Score: 0

You may want to try Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black Drawing Pencils. They have a high proportion of carbon for matte, jet black results that you can't typically get in purely graphite pencils but handle and sharpen like a graphite pencil--you avoid the mess of charcoal and clumsy handling but should still get the darkness you want. They range from HB to 8B but work well with graphite should you need to mix in some harder leads.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Hi username_3. You don't really answer the question, and it sounds a little like you're trying to advertize. Do you have experience with this product, and have you tried similar ones?  

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