Self portrait from life. 2012.
I used homemade charcoal made from some honeysuckle vines that were cut down last year. I wrapped the vines in foil and cooked them in the barbeque at 400F for three hours.
I was able to get four values from the charcoal alone. The slightly off-white paper provided another value and a white conte crayon gave me the lightest value. That's six total.
The half-lit face is much easier to draw than a three-quarter lit face.