How do I choose between charcoal, pastels, and pencils for portrait drawing?

Start with a simple question for yourself - what appeals to you more: sharp lines or soft, blended transitions? If you want to detail facial features, hatch fine elements, then pencil is your choice: it gives you control, it's easy to correct, and it holds well on paper. If you're drawn to rich tones and airiness, if you like how the material flows smoothly and lets you blend easily, then pastels create a completely different effect - portraits come out alive and soft. Charcoal sits in between: it quickly delivers deep black tones and is great for expressive, high-contrast work, but it requires practice and fixative, otherwise it'll smudge.

Try different materials on practice sketches of the same face. Pay attention to how comfortable it feels to hold the material, how quickly you see results, whether you enjoy the process. Pencil is good if you prefer working slowly and thoughtfully, pastels if you're ready to experiment and aren't afraid to get messy, charcoal if you're after drama and don't plan to fuss over details for long.

One more tip: if you still can't decide, start with pencil. It's the most versatile medium for portraits, it's the easiest to learn with, and almost every master has gone through it. Then, once you figure out your style, you can mix materials or move on to something else.