Charcoal is a versatile and dramatic medium with incredible potential for expression. This stunning book shows you how to create a drawing using its subtle, complex and bold qualities to best effect. Through step-by-step demonstrations and tasks, it explores the process, explaining how to capture a scene or the feeling of a scene, and, essentially, how best to fix an image to the page. With over 200 illustrations, this beautiful book is a compelling guide for everyone who wants to work with this elusive and powerful medium. Topics covered include: The basics of charcoal - explains the material, its qualities and ways of using it; Charcoal lenses - advises on how to choose interesting subjects with the use of photography and sketchbooks, and how to build a library of visual references; Mark making - includes techniques for complete beginners, as well as more advanced ideas for those hoping to develop and refine their work; Demonstrations - shows how to use the techniques and build a body of work; Soft pastel - suggests ways of combining charcoal with pastel to add colour to your work; Tasks and extensions - gives tips for trying and exploring ideas further to develop your own skills and to create a unique style to your work and finally: Protecting your work - advises on the key techniques used for fixing, photographing, storing and framing your work.

Bruno Munari was one of the most important and eclectic twentieth-century European artists. Dubbed the "Leonardo and Peter Pan" of contemporary art, he pioneered what would later be labelled kinetic art, playing a key role in the constitution and definition of the aesthetic programmes of groups such as Movimento Arte Concreta and Programmed Art. He became an internationally recognized name in the field of industrial design, winning the prestigious "Compasso d'Oro" prize four times, while also being a prominent figure in Italian graphic design, working for magazines such as Tempo and Domus, as well as renowned publishing companies such as Einaudi and Bompiani. He left an indelible mark as an art pedagogue and popularizer with his famous 1970s artistic laboratories for children and was the author of numerous books, ranging from essays on art and design to experimental books. Capturing a resurgent interest in Munari at the international level, the exceptional array of critical voices in this volume constitutes an academic study of Munari of a depth and range that is unprecedented in any language, offering a unique analysis of Munari's seven-decade-long career. Through original archival research, and illuminating and generative comparisons with other artists and movements both within and outside Italy, the essays gathered here offer novel readings of more familiar aspects of Munari's career while also addressing those aspects that have received scant or no attention to date.