I’m already a competent draftsman, so there weren’t many new exercises in this class for me (though I did take notes on the detailed concept breakdown sections).

I tried to apply these ideas to a drawing on Fabiano Clay paper - it not ideal for charcoal, as it doesn’t have much tooth, but it was the only toned paper I could lay my hand to for this project, where I currently live.

The Basking Shark is a subject that I’ve been working on for a little while - I’m a diver, and I spend a lot of time drawing and painting pelagic landscapes and subjects that I have either observed or would like to see. I’ve done this in watercolour, graphite and stippling but none of those really worked for this subject - I wanted the feeling of the shark looming out of the water towards the viewer, and I thought that smudged charcoal might work better.

First, I outlined the subject in graphite, then built up a base layer with ground Nitram charcoal and a large blending stump.  I also blended some charcoal in a light wash to give some gradation. I then darkened some areas with the nitram stick directly and blended them out. I tried to add the wrinkled skin with General’s charcoal pencils, but these were too hard and too difficult to blend out - I have (with no small amount of effort) managed to order some Polychromos and Derwent Pencils, and I’ll see if I can make any of those work better. 
The darker tones in the mouth were achieved with a B6 Charcoal Pencil and a White Derwent Pencil.

Overall, I was happy enough with the final result that this project won’t haunt me any more, but I would like to find some thinker toothed toned paper that might allow me to build up more blended darks. I’d also like to find some pencils that blended out slightly more - the sharp details contrasted with the blended background, where they should have merged with each other, which is the picture’s weakest element.

I’ll be taking more of Messer’s classes in the future - the style is a bit cleaner than I probably aim for, but I am looking to improve and refine my technique across all my drawing disciplines (so any feedback is welcome). And I really love charcoal, and I want to apply it to the shell of a Hawks-bill Turtle and the nightmare visage of a Giant Moray Eel.