Difference Between Charcoal And Graphite Drawing. Incidentally graphite has a flat plate-like structure where charcoal and carbon have rough grains. If you work with a variety of grades of pencil you can achieve a broad range of grey shades.
That plate structure reflects light the common sheen displayed by pencil drawings but the coarse grains of charcoal dont reflect light at all so blacks appear to be more dense. Another big difference is that charcoal has a matte surface whereas a graphite drawing will have a slight sheen to it so I found graphite drawings much more difficult to photograph because you have to have it at just the right angle to not get glare in your photograph. Meanwhile hard graphite pencils are much lighter hardest being the lightest.
Also the powdered charcoal is blended along with.
However here are some tips and uses of different grades so you can make a better choice. Whereas graphite most often needs to use an eraser to remove from the paper. DRAWING PAINTING COURSES on my Website. Primarily the two forms of charcoal are sticks and pencils.