The right materials for drawing can help improve your skills for working from the figure.
Most drawing materials have particular attributes which can aid in softening and smoothing.
This can help in achieving the consistent subtle tone changes that occur in the figure. A soft pencil is one with a dark tone that can be smoothed and also can achieve dark rich blacks. Ebony pencils are excellent. Compressed Charcoal Charcoal also comes in value ranges that increase in number just as pencils do. Look for high numbers like 6B or higher for best results.