pior--those sketches look fucking great. i don't think you need to worry about getting any specific "look". pretty soon people will be trying to get that "pior look". keep it up!
I'm pretty sure they're using torchons, the paper blending sticks you mentioned. If you use a soft pencil to start off with then press hard and move fast with a torchon, it creates a very similar effect to that shown in the images, especially obvious in the lower left area of the 2nd image. You can also guess that because…
I used to goto the concept art forums a lot when some of the teachers and students from watts would post sketches from their classes. It's been awhile, but I seem to remember them using newsprint with black conte pencils sharpened to have a long point.
charcoal pencils or conte pencils. I didn't remember exactly which brand. You shave most the wood off to expose 2" or so of the charcoal, keep a bit of med-grit sand paper handy to keep it with a sharp point. I remember Ron grinding the point to have 2 sides. A large flat side for wide swaths of value, a smaller flat side…