Hello Hanna,
I have worked a lot in soft pastels also. I try not to blend, but find that I can't resist when doing faces.
I use a medium toned paper. I think that gray works best for now. I start with a pastel pencil that is a dark, fairly cool red-brown. I use Conte' number 31(mars violet maybe, or madder lake) to start my drawing. I put the darkest shadows in first with the dark red-brown pencil. Then I use a NuPastel (slightly softer) ivory color for the lightest areas, then I scrub the medium tones in with a medium warm red-orange. After that I just keep refining anywhere that it needs it. I also look for some pale cool green or blue gray in the shadows.
I start with harder pastels and get softer as I work.
|