Charcoal Encounter by

First feeling about charcoal

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 08:09:36 UTC

I decided to pick up some charcoals and my first thought about it was that it is very messy. Even though I choose small pieces and was being a bit more careful than usual, the charcoal powder can easily get all over your hand or finger, so it made my hand dirty quickly.

Charcoal are lightweight and easy to crack

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 08:28:14 UTC

Charcoal look similar to rock so I expected that they are quite heavy. However, to my surprise, they are more lightweight after they are fully burned and easy to crack into many small parts.

Charcoal is easy to shatter

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 08:38:29 UTC

Charcoal are more easy to shatter and create crumbs than I expected. I only require to use one piece of charcoal and slightly give it a few taps on any surface, I can see small crumbs starting to fall off.

Charcoal's powder can easily spread out and make stain

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 09:05:24 UTC

I used my finger to touch the dust that was made from the charcoal. Surprisingly, the dust can be spread out and make stain easily. Before this, I only believe that you can only use charcoal that are in pieces to draw line, but apparently you can also do that activity with just charcoal's dust/powder.

Create fingerprint

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 09:24:52 UTC

After all the dust settle on my finger, I have a quick look at my palm and saw that the dust naturally spread out all over my finger and in really dark shade. I pressed my finger against paper surface, and I can actually see my fingerprint start taking shape and show on the paper.

Charcoal can be used for multiple purposes

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 09:34:29 UTC

Not only did charcoal can leave fingerprint on paper surface, but it can also leave print of your hold palm. As Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016) stated that "Charcoal could be used for purposes other than drawing. There may be more to paper than just a surface. We strive to see beyond our current field of vision and to perceive what we haven't yet conceived" (p. 36). I believed that this is true as charcoal can do way much more than what we expected and is a great material for us to learn and explore.

Making lines

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 11:28:54 UTC

With only one small piece of charcoal, it can draw so many big lines and spread out in the paper fast which I feel is quite effective in some ways. For example, if it is a thin line or using pencil, you might take a long time to completely blend out the charcoal to fill the whole sheet of paper, but with charcoal, it can easily blend out fast with wider lines in a few second.

Easy to blend out

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 11:34:02 UTC

Charcoal are easy to blend out. From one dark line, it can be blend out to become something bigger and create a a palette with different shade of black. It is also cited that as you darken one area with charcoal, the surrounding areas will appear lighter, expanding the contrast and enhancing the depth (Orbach, 2023).

Charcoal can make different colour

KimNganTruong — 2025-02-28 11:46:27 UTC

Charcoal pieces that are not fully burned can create a different colour. I did not aware that charcoal can make a different colour aside from black, so when I saw this dark brown colour, it was really fascinating.

Charcoal mix with water

KimNganTruong — 2025-03-01 04:32:05 UTC

I was playing around with the water and discover that all the charcoal that was linger on my palm or finger can get dissolve with the water and create a new black color liquid that can be use as something similar to paint. According to Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2016), attending means "involved creating an atmosphere that allowed us to linger, relax, stretch our minds, and open our eyes to see that anything could be connect to anything else" (p. 40). This process really mirrors the idea of fostering an environment where ideas can freely, revealing new connections. Just as the charcoal dissolves or combine with water to form something new.

Charcoal under sunlight

KimNganTruong — 2025-03-01 06:23:51 UTC

I took the charcoal outdoor and the weather that day was nice with lots of sunlight. We often see charcoal as a black wooden piece, or in some case when it is not fully burned, it can be seen in shade of brown color. However, when charcoal was put under the sunlight, I observed a new side of charcoal with a little bit of sparkles. The charcoal was glittering under the sunlight which was beautiful. It reminds me of a gemstone.

Different sounds

KimNganTruong — 2025-03-01 06:38:34 UTC

I kept on using one small piece of charcoal to draw back and fourth. I noticed that there was a different in the sound that was created. Apparently, depend on what line you are trying to draw, the charcoal can create a different sound. For instance, the sound was different when I tried to draw a wider line compare to when I tried to draw a thin line.

Creating charcoal's powder

KimNganTruong — 2025-03-01 06:51:43 UTC

I realized that when I used charcoal to create lines there were many dust pieces or charcoal's powder keep flying around and spread out every where. When I look closely, it was created from me trying to make a very dark line. When I keep pressing the charcoal, it actually can create charcoal's powder.