I thought to use a tablet but mine's a small model so I just drew the whole thing on larger paper instead.

Samurai Cat!

That was a lot of fun. Gotta love raccoons. I draw a blank when it came to a good concept for the final sketch (first image on the left). I think it could have a much stronger personality.

I couldn't help but lightly "ghost" some underdrawing lines first. They really helped me find a reasonable proportion and feature placement without measuring.

I think it'd behoove all of us if you were emphasizing the way you positioned your hand. One thing I noticed is that in order to draw a curve more confidently, you really have to put your hand at sort of a "center" or that curve (or arc). Place your hand elsewhere seems to make it easier to fail.

It's gonna take a while until my lines feel solidly confident.

The first attempt was a little expedient. I spent more time on the second one, trying to follow the plane changes on the face.

The biggest tip I learnt from this demo is start light, even for the shadows. In my earlier attempts, I always went straight for the B6 pencils for the shadows, and couldn't get them any darker.

One thing I'd like to point out is the pencil angle. On the first viewing, I thought you were just using a very steep angle, but after many failed attempts and a fresh viewing, I realized I should've been using a much gentler angle. A steeper angle indents the paper too quickly and adds too much graphite, leaving no room for later.