The best option to erase charcoal from your drawing is a kneaded eraser. It can be transformed into any form perfectly suited for the charcoal artist’s needs. You can be very precise with it but you can also erase large areas on your surface with it.

People have long used activated charcoal as a natural water filter. Just as it does in the intestines and stomach, activated charcoal can interact with and absorb a range of toxins, drugs, viruses, bacteria, fungus, and chemicals found in water.

White charcoal is similar to that of compressed charcoal and it comes as sticks or pencils. They are made of Calcium Carbonate mixed with a binder inside a pencil. Alternatives to this would be white pastel – like CarbOthello, Wolff, NuPastel, Lyra, or Conte.

What complicates matters here is that “white charcoal” does legitimately exist. It’s a Japanese variety also known as “Binchōtan”, and while it isn’t as dark as conventional charcoal, it isn’t exactly white, either. At best, it’s a light gray – like the color of ashes.

Toxicity. In general, drawing charcoal is not toxic. Charcoal is made from willow or vine (typically grape vine), and this natural stick is the purest form. Most compressed charcoals use natural gums as binders, so they are also generally safe.

White “charcoal” is actually chalk or titanium dioxide. Conté crayons are made of powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with clay.

Compressed charcoal is made of charred wood dust and other materials in powder form. The charcoal powder is held together with a binder of gum or wax. It’s available in both sticks and pencils in various ranges of softness, depending on the ratio of powder to binder.

To stop charcoal sketches from smearing, one must use fixative spray. Use many light coats to avoid dust from the sketch. Instead of applying one heavy coat of fixative, it is best to apply multiple lighter coats.

Watercolor: Yes! You can use fixative sprays on watercolor paintings. Acrylics: Artists have reported success while using Sennelier D’Artigny Oil Pastel Fixative(designed for varnishing pastel work) and also Krylon Kamar spray varnish for acrylics.

Protect your charcoal, chalk, graphite, and pastel drawings by using a fixative spray. Fixative spray keeps surfaces from smudging, fading, and flaking after a work is complete.

Rather than use a brush-on varnish (which would smear the charcoal anyway), you should use a spray varnish such as Golden Archival Spray Varnish or Lascaux UV Protect.

Protecting a Charcoal Drawing without Fixative When working with charcoal, it’s important that you purchase a triple mat frame as this helps make sure the charcoal doesn’t touch the glass, which can cause smearing and dislodge particles.

Fixative: A medium such as a solution or spray that preserves specimens of tissues or cells. Most biopsies and specimens removed at surgery are fixed in a solution such as formalin (dilute formaldehyde) before further processing takes place. “Fixative” is derived from the Latin “figere” (to fix, fasten, make stable).

The answer is yes – you can use hairspray to set your charcoal drawing if needed, but you should use a professional fixative if you are serious about drawing. Using a fixative or hairspray will help, as it will bind the charcoal granules that sit on the surface of the paper, together, which helps prevent smudging.

Cytology Fixative covers cells with a tough, soluble film that protects cell morphology for microscopic examination. It is water and alcohol soluble, environmentally friendly and extremely economical.

A fixative is a stabilizing or preservative agent: Dye fixatives or mordants, are chemical substances used in processing fabrics to create circumstances in the micro-substrates causing dye molecules to adhere and remain that way.

Air- dried smears have many advantages over wet-fixed smears during routine cytology. They may be post- fixed after rehydration in saline with a variety of fixatives, such as ethanol/acetic acid, 95% ethanol or alcoholic formalin.

Ethyl alcohol

Compound Fixatives• Microanatomical fixatives: These are used to preserve the anatomy of the tissue. • Cytological fixatives: These are used to fix intracellular structures. • Histochemical fixatives : These are used to demonstrate the chemical constituents of the cell.

1. Phosphate buffered formalin. The most widely used formaldehyde-based fixative for routine histopathology. The buffer tends to prevent the formation of formalin pigment.

Carnoy’s fixative adds chloroform and acetic acid to the mixture which counteracts the shrinkage effects of ethanol and engenders tissue fixation through hydrogen bonding of the constituents to the tissue [2]. Whereas, acetic acid penetrates relatively quickly and opposes the tissue shrinkage caused by the picric acid.

HISTOLOGY

An ideal fixative should: Preserve the tissue and cells as life-like as possible, without any shrinking or swelling and without distorting or dissolving cellular constituents. Stabilize and protect tissues and cells against the detrimental effects of subsequent processing and staining procedures.

Osmium tetroxide It is soluble in polar and non-polar solvents and reacts with the side chains of proteins forming cross-links. The most important fixation reactions of osmium tetroxide are those involving unsaturated bonds of lipids and phospholipids as it is one of the few fixatives that stabilises lipids.