[Julia Reynolds]

Hi everyone and thanks for the input.

The reason I was able to work very quickly is that I held only four colors in my hand the whole time...a sepia conte, a dark umber conte, a light grey nupastel and a off white grumbacher pastel stick.

I do work fast and have been told to by many an instructor to slow down, but when I do, I start to pick at one area and throw the whole thing off. When I work fast I seem to be better able to catch the dynamic quality of a model.

The lighting was actually less than ideal, it was directly overhead which is what put the mouth area in complete shadow.

I go to this life drawing studio ever Tuesday so if I make any more portraits I'll post them, but sometimes I use the long pose to do a full body study.

Thanks again for all the comments. Much appreciated.