Charcoal portraiture: a stroke of genius.
Demo held: Monday, 05 October, 2026
Mick McNicholas is a portrait artist who works in oils and charcoal. For the Lawrence Art Society's October demonstration, he showed members his original charcoal technique.
In Mick’s Merseyside accent, he started the evening by running through the materials he'd use, the different types of charcoal, and, just as important to his method, how he'd remove it. His final item was a piece of rough sandpaper, which he rubbed against the charcoal, creating charcoal dust.
Although he warned us what he was about to do next, most of us were shocked when he turned to the clean white paper and, with a violent stroke, drew a vertical block of grey down it. He continued, laying down thick strokes of grey for the next half hour, finally creating what looked, to everyone, like an abstract image. He explained that throughout the process, he squinted at his subject to accentuate the shading.
Before the break, he worked with a 2-inch brush and a putty eraser, removing parts of the abstract image until, by the break, he had what looked like a skull with an eye.
During the break, he explained that the classic technique for putting charcoal dust on the page is to dab a cloth bag filled with dust onto the paper. He said the technique is his own.
In the second half, he said he would make lots of marks and remove them, and he did, time and time again. Always drawing straight lines, not curves, at this stage. As he drew features and erased, his subject's image slowly appeared. At various stages, you thought, “I would stop now”, but he continued, each mark and removal improving the likeness.
Finally, he had to stop when time ran out.
A fine portrait.
"My charcoal drawing using my sandpaper technique from the Lawrence Art Society demo in Devizes. Clare was a great model, and even though I made her look more stern than she was, she bought the drawing afterwards, which is always a bonus."
The Artist
Largely self-taught, Mick is a portrait artist who works primarily in oils and charcoal. He has exhibited with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and at the Royal West of England Academy. Despite studying Art & Design Foundation in his youth and holding an MA in Digital Media, Mick is largely self-taught in representational art. Mick’s drawings and paintings have been exhibited in several prestigious shows as well as various group exhibitions around the country.
Visit Mick's website
here.
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