Hello Will,
Thanks for the motivating critiques!
Peter, Lon,
I know there are a lot of stripes. First of all, if you notice the parallel, fine horizontal lines, well, that's the texture of the paper. Second, I must say that the quality of the picture isn't very good. I think my lens went a bit crazy over all the stripes it had to deal with. And third, the heavy lines of the charcoal are, as Lon said, to emote, to give a strong feel to it, as I feel her expression by looking in her eye(s).
Lon, the main reason I used this paper was to experiment. I wanted to practice and didn't intend to spend much time on it (which I did). The paper wasn't bad at all to draw on. In fact I was surprised that it went so well. I can't think of any difficulties I experienced, and you're right, it won't yellow.
