Soho Urban ArtistJumbo Willow Charcoal, Black - 15mm - Drawing Charcoal for Artists, Students, Blending, Live Figure Drawing, & More

I love this stuff!!!! I will always purchase this brand!

SoHo Urban Artist Willow Charcoal is a great product for anyone looking for high-quality charcoal sticks. The texture of the charcoal is wonderful for creating a range of values in drawings, from light to dark, and it blends easily with other materials. It is an excellent choice for artists who want to experiment with different techniques and styles in their work.However, the packaging that the charcoal is shipped in needs improvement. The stick that I received was broken into several pieces because the packaging was too flimsy to protect it during transit. While the charcoal is still usable, the broken pieces are too small to use by hand, and I have to grind them up finely to use as a charcoal dust powder. This is inconvenient and time-consuming because i ordered a whole stick, if i had wanted powder dust, i would have ordered that.Despite this issue with the packaging, I would still recommend SoHo Urban Artist Willow Charcoal to other artists. The quality of the charcoal itself is excellent, and it is worth the effort to work around the packaging problem. I plan to purchase this product again in the future, and I hope that the company will take steps to improve its packaging to prevent any further damage to the charcoal during shipping.In conclusion, SoHo Urban Artist Willow Charcoal is a great product with excellent performance, but the packaging needs improvement to prevent breakage during shipping. The charcoal is perfect for artists who want to produce high-quality drawings and paintings with a range of values. While the broken pieces can be used as a charcoal dust powder, it is still inconvenient for artists who prefer to work with whole sticks. Overall, I would still recommend this product, and I hope that the company will address the packaging issue to make it even better in the future.

The willow stick seems delicate, but after using a piece that had broken off, I realized I didn't need much pressure to get the charcoal to transfer and when I did put on a little pressure, it held up pretty well. I did a sample seascape with the willow charcoal used for all the shading. A 6H pencil was used to layout the design, and a HB pencil was used to define the horizon and mountain line a little more. The paper is an a multi-media drawing paper with a little tooth and a little thicker than copy paper.I was able to work the willow in layers to get as dark as I thought possible through smudging and used a very light application for clouds. It blended quite easily with a smudging tool. It wasn't very messy to work with. Some pieces did come off because of it being fractured, but there wasn't much debris while drawing.

Soho Urban Artist Willow stick is a good quality art tool. It arrived well packaged in one piece. Inside the box it's wrapped in cellophane, which I opened on one end and used to hold the stick. It's a bit over five inches long, and the size of a jumbo pencil. The large size isn't awkward, it actually helps keeping the work a bit more loose. It's perfect if you're working on a large size substrate and want to work large, or use this on its side for shading. You can easily break it if smaller pieces would better suit your work.So far, I find that the stick isn't crumbling, or shedding very much dust. Depending on pressure used, it's capable of putting down some very dark marks. It's also easy to rub in some shading, or rub out some marks almost entirely.Highly recommended.

The size and composition of this charcoal stick was very useful for a variety of techniques, and my kids loved being able to learn shading, dusting, and texturing abstract and narrative scenes. Good value.