For my paperstock I use “Daler Rowney, 220gsm, Heavy Weight” cartridge as it’s a strong and robust weight to draw on, it takes fixing spray well and most crucially, it’s beautifully smooth. The uncoated but slick surface is like nothing else I’ve drawn on. It allows the charcoal to glide across the page creating lovely lines and means I can smudge and blend the charcoal with my fingers easily, making a single, flowing image. All this and being uncoated cartridge means it has a natural feel too. I like to use A3 size stock as this allows me to draw lots of detail.
I use “Winsor & Newton, willow” size charcoal sticks which are very thin and I prefer these as I want to get in as much detail in as I can. I occasionally use the odd large piece for filling in dense areas of black though. For rubbing out and tidying up the picture, I use fairly new rubbers with sharp corners which are very useful for delicately sculpting eyes and fine hair. I often buy big rubbers and cut them into about 3 or 4 smaller ones. One small rubber will do a few pictures then I just use it for other general rubbing purposes after that.
To fix my final drawings and stop them from smudging, I use a much cheaper but just as effective alternative to professional fixing spray, which can range from £10 – £20 a can! I use off the shelf hair spray and it’s amazing, a £1 can from the co-op contains 300ml which is enough for about 10, A3 pictures.