Charcoal practice

Happy weekends everyonnneeee how's your intro to the weekend? My friday has been chill, went out with my coworkers (the ones who also live in the lab dorms) and had dinner then we went back to the lab and resumed our introvert ways.
My introvert energy went into drawing today UwU and I am proud to say that I haven't lost touch with my charcoal capabilities UwU sure, I've gotten a little slow, but from everything I learned in Sketchtember and Inktober, I tried to apply the same principle so now, I think I'll be adding charcoal to the list of mediums I'll always use.

Materials: Balck and white charcoal pencils, eraser, white gel pen for highlights
Duration: 4 hours

So I may have taken a little longer to finish this one, but that's mostly because the canvas size I'm using is mych bigger than what I usually use.

compared to the cut out papers i usually draw on, this sketchpad is at A4 and my lab elders bought this for me to keep me behaved while I live in the lab dorms. Apparently I ask too much questions so this was needed to keep me busy. but where did my sketching start?

I didn't really get a lot of photos for this, especially at the start because my lines were too light that even I could barely see my lines. I only took photos when I started with the charcoal

Now when I start on charcoal, i usually go either from top to bottom or left to right because I don't like my hands getting so dirty from all the dust.

here, you can see that I finished the crow first because it's not in the way of the skull and it kind of keeps my hands clean is the important part 🤣

I didn't really get a lot of time to work on this, but I am proud of how well I can still handle charcoal even after a 2 year break from it. I remember the last time I used charcoal was when my sisters bought me a set 3 years ago and it only lasted me 1 year. now, i have work and I'm sure I can buy more if this set runs out as well.

I'm aware I'm still a little lacking with my charcoal skills, but that's what practice is for.
that's my current goal for the month now, to improve my charcoal skills because i ended up forgetting to buy gouache paint and I'm still wishing someone would buy me even the tube set because gouache looks so pigmented and i really want to try it.

unfortunately this is all the energy I had left I'll be sleeping now. good night everyone!