Martijn's book

[Lumens]

James, thanks! you inspired me to use white pencils for highlights.
Matt, sure you can start by looking at some of these: http://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV/videos?view=0

http://www.youtube.com/user/ronlemen1 < gesture drawing

I bought this nathan fowkes demo of portraits in charcoal: http://laafa.org/art-classes/nathan-fowk...d-version/ well worth it!

Jneumann, thank you. The grain effect is from using big chunks of charcoal , not the charcoal pencils. use the whole side of the chunk to create all kinds of textures. wipe it with the side of your hand or with a cheap brush to smudge/blend. I used willow charcoal sticks, cut them in half for better handeling.

note they will crumble and leave alot of charcoal dust all over the place.