I took a risk by using charcoal as my medium. Originally, I was planning on using pencil as my medium because I thought it would be easier since it could be easily erased and wasn't very messy. But since I was going to make the background completely black, I figured that charcoal would be a better idea. Even though I ended up getting black all over my hands, clothes, phone and a pretty much everything else....in the end, I'm glad I chose charcoal. Making the background black was also a risk because I knew I would have trouble keeping the white areas clean, and I did, but it turned out making a great contrast in the end!