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Debra,
There is a pastel artist named Carol Ketchen, I have her book called "The Passion of Painting" (I'll try and bring her book home and post an example of her work). I'm guessing at the spelling of her name and I may have the name of the book off a little bit. She does these great figurative pastels that, at least to my reading of your posts, seem to do exactly what you are trying to achieve.
One thing she does is have two people interacting in some way. A park bench, over cocktails. Try taking your camera shopping with you or to the park. Find simple scenes and back off a little.
In my opinion you still need to take a couple more steps back from your subject and then create some interaction. If not with another person then maybe with a pigeon on a park bench.
This is a great study of your friend and the modified head angle seems to be perfect for the theme. Whatever you do, don't forget how to do these great portraits. More people are doing what I suggest and wondering how they could possibly get where you are.
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Mike McCarty
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