One of the most basic ideas that many artists struggle with is to find the core of the idea they are trying to communicate in their art. The best way to describe this would be to simply reiterate that the main idea should be the main idea.
When using charcoal as your main utensil during the artistic process, the fundamentals of art never change. As you begin your creative process, the first thing to establish is what you are going to draw about. It could be an abstraction on the process of government or simply a sketch of a still life item. However, once the main idea is settled the rest of the artwork will fall into place.
There are many Sri Lanka artists who have successfully achieved this and are now apart of the Sri Lanka Art Gallery.