I use a variety of charcoal pencils and sticks, pastel pencils, and conté crayons. Some of my favorites are: 

• Conté Pencil #1710 B or softer

• Carb Othello # 645

• Carb Othello #100 (for white highlights)

For paper, I typically draw on newsprint, bond paper, or Strathmore tone papers ("pottery green" or "velvet gray" are some of my favorites). 

For blending, I use kneaded erasers, stumps, and chamois cloths.   

Razer blades and sand paper are useful for sharpening pencils to a fine tapered point, which enables me to achieve fine lines to broad strokes. As you can see from the photos, I probably get a little carried away with the fine point, but this allows me to go from a very thin line to a wide flat brush effect simply by adjusting my wrist, and that is very useful for quickly blocking in shadows and rendering within the limited time that a model is holding a pose.

I took this photo of my drawing setup in Glen Orbik's Class in the Spring of 2011, while the model was taking a break. For the Head Drawing class, we typically pushed the drawing horses up close to the model stand so as to better see the details of the face (the horses were generally pushed further away for the Figure Drawing class to allow better viewing of proportions of a full-length figure).

I draw from life (i.e.: direct observation of the live model) as often as possible, because I believe there is no better way to improve your drawing skills. I work in charcoals because they require minimal setup time (compared to oils which require time for prepping a canvas, laying our a palette, etc.). Also, charcoals can be a bridge to painting, allowing me to explore problems of light and shadow, value pattern and composition, within the limited time we have while the model is posing. Drawing from live models under a time limit forces the artist to be decisive and efficient, which translates to stronger, bolder drawings.