10pcs Vine Charcoal Sticks Willow Artist Soft Charcoal Pencil Sticks Drawing Art Set in Tin Box, 4 Sizes Charcoal Drawing Chalks Art Medium for Sketching, Drawing, Shading

I am using this for drawing. The foil on the bottom section makes for a less messy use.

They can also be used for smudging and blending, creating a range of textures and tones in a drawing. they are versatile and can be used on a variety of surfaces, including paper, canvas, and even wood

I have been looking to get into mixed media and decided to try these for accent lines. For context, I've never used charcoal before.Pros:- Package comes with multiple charcoal pencils, all varying widths and sizes- Pencil ends are covered with foil so your hands don't get as dirty- Don't really need to sharpen at all - you can use down to the foil and then peel the foil pack more- Works great on mixed media pieces with acrylic, watercolors- Works great on water color paper, mixed media paper, sketch book paper (doesn't work as great on alcohol ink yupo paper - smudges a bit more)- Comes in a carrying case, so it's easy to store without getting everything around it dirty- Also compact so easy to fit in a drawer or art box

These charcoal stick pencils are an excellent "soft" charcoal vine medium for drawing out on my canvas what I plan to paint. There is nothing more satisfying than drawing in charcoal, whether it is soft or in a pencil form, being more dense with darker lines. In this set, there are several different sizes and each are wrapped at the base with aluminum foil so your fingers stay cleaner. In addition, the case that the charcoal sticks come in easily protects the charcoal sticks from fracturing. I highly recommend this item, especially for those soft tones that you cannot get with any other medium.

I've been using vine and willow charcoal for years now and there is a definite discrepancy in qualities depending on brand. This is a very nice "set" of vine charcoal, but wow is it expensive for what should be a very inexpensive medium! When teaching my beginning drawing class, I used vine charcoal for much of the class because it was/is/should be affordable. This charcoal IS bougied up with a fancy tin and foil wrapping on half the charcoal. In theory this keeps your hands clean(er). In reality, if you don't want charcoal in your hand creases and under your fingernails, wear gloves.As far as quality, this is a good, smooth charcoal with no hard spots or lumps (it better be!). In cheaper brands of charcoal there are often chunks that feel and act more like compressed charcoal. This can totally wreck a vine charcoal drawing when these spots unexpectedly appear. This brand of charcoal definitely does not have that problem.Summary - nice charcoal, way too expensive for normal use unless you just have money to burn.

I found these willow sticks to have a rather uniform texture with only slight variability from stick-to-stick- one of the larger sticks has a slightly less-dark tone. They arrived without damage and took a point well without undue grittiness. I really like the case for secure portability and the foil wrap for spur-of-the-moment use on-the-go with minimal clean-up. I took five or six minutes to start a quick value study on some cheap medium-fine toothed sketch paper I had on hand for the attached picture. Since I didn’t have my hake brush at the dinner table I used a torn piece of paper towel to use the shavings from sharpening to establish the mids for the tumbler, which drove the charcoal into the tooth of the paper a bit much making the highlights harder to lift, but I don’t fault the sticks. I think this set is a good value for on-the-go use though for in-studio and where minimal cleanup is less of a concern I would consider a larger set of premium willow without the foil and metal case. This set will definitely be finding use in my travel kit, though.

I like that this vine charcoal comes in varieties of thicknesses which make is fast and easy to sketch thinner/lighter lines and darker/thicker lines. The thin vines sketch well without breaking and they all draw consistently. I appreciate that they come foil wrapped so I don’t get charcoal on my hands and have to constantly clean them so I don’t transfer charcoal everywhere. These will last quite a while but will re-order when I need more.*** Helpful? I rely on customer reviews for all my online purchases, so I hope so! ***

The box was delivered crushed with some of charcoal broken.