I am new to charcoal and looking to buy charcoal powder. However, all I can find on sites like Aliexpress and Amazon are teeth-whitening activated-charcoals powders like this.
Is this good for art? What should I look for and what should I avoid? Is there anything else I should notice when buying charcoal?
Search for "Artists powdered charcoal" and you will probably get the right kind. However when doing a search for just "powdered charcoal" artists powdered charcoals filled the results. Got one hit for 100% pure powdered carbon which would also work. There was only one entry out of the bunch that was for teeth but that is probably just the search algorithm doing its thing.
About using the tooth powder. If it is just pure charcoal it would work just fine but if the product doesn't make it clear or it has extra ingredients than it would not be the best for making art since the non carbon additives may mess with the paper or drawing.
There is also the difference between activated and non-activated charcoals, which appears to depend on the heat at which the charcoal is formed and maybe to some degree the source material to be carbonized. The activated type is used for medical/body applications because the activated carbon atoms do such a good job bonding with toxins and such. It should not make a difference when used as an artists medium.
Anyway, what you want to look for is pure powdered charcoal, graphite, or carbon. If you are getting that then it doesn't matter what they are selling it for. In a pinch can make your own by sanding/scraping down graphite sticks or pencil leads, or if you are really hardcore by crushing your own burnt (at low oxygen) materials.
