Charcoal is easily blended with tortillions, facial tissue, chamois or even your fingers. As with graphite, you can subtract lines or tone from charcoal by lifting with an eraser.
Because charcoal is soft, the tooth, (texture) of your paper greatly affects the look of charcoal marks. Use spray fixative to keep finished charcoal work from smudging.
From left to right:
Vine charcoal lines, vine charcoal blended, vine charcoal lifted
From left to right:
Compressed charcoal lines, compressed charcoal blended, compressed charcoal lifted