I think charcoal is a very intimate and romantic medium. Each marking made is a reflection of the artist's expression because the points are so sensitive to how the artist is handling the instrument

Lately I have been experimenting with different surfaces. For this demo I chose to paint on a 9"x12" hot press Arches paper with acrylic paint that I mixed out of yellow ochre, black and green, then mixed with Liquitex ceramic stucco gel to serve as tooth for the ground so the charcoal will adhere better (first try, wish me luck!).

Materials from the top:

Electric eraser (for pointed and /or hard edge erasures), kneaded eraser (a malleable material to custom fit areas you want to erase or lighten), vine charcoal (I prefer the medium hardness, this is used to lay in the drawing, it's easily rubbed off), sandpaddle sharpener (I use as sharpener for the vine charcoal mainly), Conte stump (I love Conte brands for charcoal and pastels!), "made in Taiwan" stump (you wouldn't catch me using this with charcoal on paper but this worked better on my experimental surface), General's charcoal pencil 2B, 4B, 6B (used in the order because the points go from hard to softer and also line get darker as it gets softer), Pitt charcoal medium and soft (they make darker markings than Generals), Carbothello white (I prefer this for highlights over the charcoal white that General sells because it's more visible), chamois (used to shake of most of vine charcoal without earasing the markings).