Charcoal - General experience, Difficulties

Since this is the first time I am using charcoal there are a lot of peculiarities I noticed.

1. Charcoal cant be used with polished paper. It needs a rough surface. I had to look out for a sketch book. And again either India is poorly equipped or I am ignorant about the places, it took a long time to locate a proper Art materials supplier. Finally found one in Chennai, Parrys corner, Giri emporium.
2. Charcoal needs more control. You cant even draw a straight line or a sharp line. It just gives you a wide line. Its not as flexible as graphite.
3. Charcoal pencils are difficult to sharp. Had a tough time sharpening my pencils, at one stage I even thought of continuing with charcoal sticks. Planning to get a mechanical or electric sharpener.
4. Getting the right tones. Charcoal has its own mind, kinda unpredictable. It does what it wants to do. You will never know what tones will come out of it. You need lighter tones to make the nose look 3d but it screws up everything by making it darker. Its however easy to do hair portions with charcoal.
5. Charcoal makes the entire setup dirty and clumsy, so be more diligent and organised.

First Charcoal Art

Today I tried my first charcoal art. I had bought some stuff from chennai, Giri emporium, paris corner. I also tried to take a video of it, dint come well though (scraped the vid :-(( ). I feel like I am running short of tools for charcoal art. Some one please give me some useful tips and tools that I can use with charcoal. Actually I was not able to get the blending right. I was trying to sketch megan fox and its sad that it hardly resembled her . Stay tuned for the pics and more info. 

First poster painting

Today I did a rough painting with poster colors. After a long time I am using all those stuff. Had to literally dust them and revive the chemicals. So this one took less time and it was a very rough one. Am yet to scan it so bear with me for lack of visuals. More to come in the coming days so stay put as I hunt for art accessory shops wanting to grab all the stuff I have been wanting for a long time. Wish me good luck. Good night people.

I am back !!

So after about three years since my last pencil sketch , I am back to pencil sketching. I am just trying to use charcoal materials as of now. Lets see how things work out. I don't know how my interest towards sketching dropped down, may be because I was getting too obsessed with the people I sketched. Anyways I figured it out now. More info to come.