Loved working in this medium, sometimes watercolors can be so frustrating to work with. Charcoal lets you slowly manipulate your shapes and edges. Breathing in all that dust is a slight negative though. I made an initial block-in to fix the proportions on the paper, then started laying in large masses of values, called the mass-in. The third stage is rendering, which is all about the half tones and transitions. In the next stage, I start to think about edges and render details and textures. The final stage is the finishing stage.
Charcoal and pastel on watercolor paper
9 by 12 in, vertical
Watercolor Journal 