The jury's out
 

Hi! I could use some help. This is the first pastel I've done since 1984, and I wasn't proud of that one either.

I've heard that pastels reproduce nicely as gicl

Here's the picture with the reference.

Here's a detail (top).

And here's another detail (bottom).

Cathleen,

Are you looking for a smooth blended look? The pencils don't seem to blend the way the sticks do.

Catherine, I love the way you've handled the cloth of her dress and the way the feet and arms are coming out. Lovely color and texture. Your technique and use of the pastels is fine, in my opinion. My concerns are more subject and model-related. Right now her nose is too sharp, her head seems too pale and the features aren't sufficiently delineated, although I realize that this is a work in progress. But I also keep asking myself what the story of the painting is: why is she there against that background and in that position? Because of the colors you've used for the various components she doesn't really seem to fit into the world you've created for her. Perhaps that's the impression you're looking for, though.

I like the drama and mystery of the deeply shaded interior space you have in the original source photo. I would go with that. Nice job on the fabric!

Michele and Leslie,

Thanks for your comments! To be honest, I tried to make up a "scene" to put the figure in, and it looks made up, doesn't it? Now, to get to a nice deep, say, velvety background, should I erase or try to scrape off the dumb background or cover it up directly, or then again, start over?

I'm at home with oil and graphite, so I'd know when I made a dud or when I could fix it with those two media; I suspect it'll take a lot of elbow grease to repair this one. Or is this when a soft pastel applied hard comes to the rescue?

What you're describing sounds like a waste of time to me. It may also damage the paper. I'd say keep what you've done for reference and start something new. You can do it differently. A new medium takes practice.

I don't work enough with pastel to know if that background could be covered up. That's one of the reasons I work with oils: it's very forgiving of changes and it takes the same amount of time as working in other mediums. (Oh, and people will pay more for an oil painting!)