How do I create soot without burning a building down?

July 13, 2009 4:59 PM

I want to add soot as an element to one of my paintings. How do I create soot?

Obviously, I have to burn something...but what? It should be dark like charcoal and fine enough to spread over a large area. I'm not looking for big chunks. Ideally, it would be something that I burn and hold over the canvas as it falls into the desired locations. I would prefer something that I could control as it is burning and rather it not be toxic enough to knock me out. Any ideas?

posted by ieatwords to media & arts (9 comments total)

Get a friend with a grill and offer to pay for the charcoal.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:01 PM on July 13

Could you just drop charcoal in a spice grinder? Maybe that would wreck the grinder though...
posted by glider at 5:03 PM on July 13

Burn the end of a wine cork. That will make a smooth enough soot that you can basically draw with the wine cork, or 'color in' the are you're interested in.
posted by jeb at 5:06 PM on July 13

You will need:

A largish plate
A candle and matches
A stiff paintbrush

Light the candle. Hold the plate over the flame. If you leave it just a tad above the tip of the flame, the bottom of the plate will develop a nice layer of soot. Soot is sticky stuff and it'll build up a nice layer before you have any problms with it.

Use the paintbrush to brush the soot off the bottom of the plate over your painting. Voila, soot!

Alternately you could use a stick of drawing charcoal and a nail file. Use the nail file to 'grate' charcoal off onto the painting. Charcoal is basically just a solid lump of soot.
posted by Jilder at 5:11 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Any good art store should offer powdered charcoal; if not, simply grinding some charcoal sticks down on sandpaper should give you what you need.
posted by fatbird at 5:11 PM on July 13

On an atomic level, soot is not altogether dissimilar from charcoal. Is there any reason you can't just use powdered charcoal?
posted by mr_roboto at 5:13 PM on July 13

The pigment Lamp black is soot ground into binder. Sumi ink is soot with animal fat ground in as binder. You can buy these media prepared top quality for art applications, and they will apply in a predicable fashion and be controllable.

Vine charcoal is toasted grape vines, Willow toasted willow branches. Vegetable matter softer than wood matter. You can buy charcoal in large blocks used by the cosmetic industry in small bricks. Charcoal is blended nowadays to have varied hardness soft, medium and hard.

Have you ever heard of black lung? Miners get it from breathing airborne charcoal. If you are applying it in powdered form, a breathing mask would be a good idea.

If you just want the drama of setting something ablaze, I would separate that into a separate category---say, performance art. I keed, I keed.

My choice would be the large unbound charcoal sticks or the sumi ink which comes in water soluble bricks and no fire or air borne particles are involved.

I hope that's helpful. Happy painting.
posted by effluvia at 5:56 PM on July 13

If you burn something you will get ash falling, and soot rising. If you really need the burning to create the art, you might want your canvas above your oily rag (or somesuch) - high enough that it won't burn, of course.

If it were me I would take an exacto to a stick of artist's charcoal and let the dust fall where it may, but it depends on what kind of randomness/lack of control you want.
posted by O9scar at 7:55 PM on July 13

Burnt cork was traditionally used for black makeup. It's a tad sticky/greasy feeling.
posted by chairface at 12:00 PM on July 14