I'm no master but I think the biggest hurdle beginners have to get over is this: don't worry about drawing perfect straight lines and curves. Start rough and refine. Here's a digital still life study I did a little while ago showing how I roughed in the shape.
you sort of have layers when working with real media with pencil/charcoal you can use fixative spray to preserve finished parts of work (also if you make a charcoal drawing for painting later, it's a must.); but you have to start really accurate - light indicative strokes to establish basic proportions, lots of measuring…
@Justin_Meisse I can certainly see your point in starting rough and refining. Too many times I get caught up with trying to make every stroke look perfect and that's definitely something I need to get over. Another thing that kinda bothers me is not being able to Undo, Erase accurately, or work on multiple layers in…