Smooth paper

Because charcoal is a dry medium, you’ll need textured paper that will grab the charcoal and help it to stick , but i use Steinbach paper and its so smooth and i'm satisfy with that .

All Kinds: Charcoal comes in several different forms

• The compressed stick, which can can be hard, produces a grayer shade, or soft and very deep black.
  A softer charcoal is easier to smudge: it’s the one that will get all over your hands, your paper, and probably your clothing and face too!

• Pressed charcoal also comes as a pencil. This is useful for detailed drawings because it can be sharpened to a fine point. It is also much less messy! i use this Pancils for my works

• Willow or vine charcoal comes actually as a willow stick: it is long, cylindrical and wiggly. Willow charcoal is also very soft and produces a velvety, dove grey. It has a great texture to draw with, but is also very smudgy.

Why I like Charcoal

Charcoal is used much the same way as a pencil. It’s a tool for drawing, shading and blending, but there is something psychologically different about using charcoal.
It lets you get more expressive and work larger without getting stuck in details.
Charcoal sticks especially can force you to focus on large shapes and general contours because of their blunt ends.