The charcoal I've been using for six years switched their formula and now my whole hand feels wrong
I bought a new box of my usual compressed charcoal sticks yesterday, same brand I've used since I started, the cheap fat ones that feel like drawing with a burned stick, and they're DIFFERENT. They changed something. The black isn't as deep, the texture is grainier, it doesn't lay down the same way at all. I could tell in three strokes.
I genuinely don't know if I'm being precious and it's fine and I just need to adjust, or if they actually ruined it and I need to find a new brand after half a decade. Has anyone else dealt with this? Did you just power through and get used to it or did you switch? I feel like my hand memorized a specific resistance and now it's gone and I'm having a disproportionate emotional reaction to a stick of burnt wood but here we are.
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Ugh, I know this exact feeling. Not with charcoal, for me it was etching ink, one of the German brands I'd used for years. They changed the oil base and suddenly the viscosity was off, the bite was different, the whole timing of a plate I'd been printing the same way for ages just... shifted. It's not preciousness. Your hand knows.
What I'd do, buy one stick of a couple different brands and see if any of them give you back what you had. Don't try to adjust to the new formula unless you're sure it's actually workable. Sometimes these changes are just cost-cutting and the thing is genuinely worse and it won't come back. Other times it's a different batch and the next box is fine. But that first instinct, three strokes, I'd trust it.
The etching ink comparison is so spot on. It's not about being precious, your hand builds up a relationship with a material over years, and when it breaks, it really throws you. I've had it happen with pastel paper, a brand I used for ages suddenly changed the tooth and it felt like drawing on plastic. Tried to power through for weeks and just got frustrated.
I think you're right about trying different brands rather than forcing yourself to adapt to something that might genuinely be worse. Sometimes the new formula really is just worse.
Ugh the pastel paper thing hit me right in the chest. That's exactly it, it's not being precious, it's your HAND knowing something before your brain catches up. Six years of muscle memory with these stupid cheap charcoal sticks and now I'm out here second-guessing every mark like I've never drawn before.
Did you ever find a replacement for the paper or are you still hunting? I'm about to go on a whole brand odyssey and I'm honestly not ready for it 😭
YES thank you. The "your hand knows" thing, that's exactly it. I kept thinking maybe I was imagining it or being dramatic but I literally could FEEL it was wrong before I even processed it consciously.
That etching ink thing sounds devastating though damn. At least with charcoal I'm only out like eight bucks per stick. When the thing you're making is that far along and the whole chemistry shifts... that's brutal.
I think you're right about trying other brands. I've been so loyal to these stupid cheap ones I don't even know what else is out there. Any recs for something with a deep rich black that isn't too hard? I hate that scratchy chalky feeling.