Wow Garth! I love all the subtle and yet vibrant variations of color in the boy's skin. Fun to look at! I guess you prefer oils for their control, but i love the painterly way you use pastel.
I have a set of Sennelier, which I love since before that I'd been using a hodgepodge of miscellaneous cheap stuff I'd had since I was about 10!
The thing with oil is you can mix and achieve good color with a very limited palette, but with pastel you seem to need lots of colors-- and still that layering seems necessary... That's been my experience, anyway.
Incredible work, as always!
Christy