Pastel Figure Drawing

Tonight I finished up the figure drawing I have been working on for two weeks in the weekly Thursday Night figure drawing sessions at PAFA. This was my first attempt to draw a figure with pastels, which isn't easy. I had to learn to layer then, smudge, layer, blend, and spray fixitive, then work again.

I used Nupastels and a bit of conte. I tried incorporating some of the lessons I've been picking up in Noel's class like cross contur and pushing the volumes, plus learning what to leave out, which is as important as what you leave in, maybe even more important. The feet and the hand gave me a fit as they were rather small and the pastels are like big blocky crayons, but I fought on. I'm pretty happy with this and look forward to trying another pastel drawing next week.