Fixative Art Supplies and more

If you’ve ever drawn with charcoal you know it can get messy. The charcoal that leaves such a great mark on your paper will also leave marks on your hands, and the charcoal dust will drift down the page, onto your easel and the floor. Because the charcoal powder is not fixed on your page you can use it to great effect by using an (already dirty) finger, or cloth or tissue, to smudge and smear the charcoal to create tone and shading.

But if you want to preserve a drawing, or even make your drawing easier, you may want to consider using fixative.

Spray fixative for fixing charcoal drawings

Fixative comes in spray form. You simply point and spray over your picture. The instructions on the can recommend you spray from side to side, ranging over your picture, and then repeat at a cross angle to ensure coverage. It dries in seconds, and the charcoal on your picture is then “fixed”. You can draw your finger over the drawing but the charcoal remains in place.

You may want to consider cleaning up your drawing before fixing it. Not too much cleaning though, as the mess often adds to the character of the drawing! I fixed a few old drawings recently and used a kneadable eraser just to clean up some of the margin areas which had become smudged.

You can also use fixative to help keep a drawing clean and fresh while you are working on it. For example, if you had some dark lines or tone on your drawing, and you were concerned that your hand was going to smudge this as you continued drawing, you could fix that part in place before continuing. If you’re in a class make sure you ask first – this stuff has quite a strong (but not unpleasant) smell.