Sketch on Tinted Paper

Today our figure drawing class continued to work on portraits. There were six models so we were able to get up close. I chose this particular model as her facial expression and posture are so lovely and the textures in her hair and shirt were challenging.

I used a strongly tinted pastel paper and was uncertain about how to use it along with the pastels to show the lighter and darker parts of the sketch. I began with a contour drawing with a fine point pen. Then when I added the pastels the drawing disappeared so I went back with a sharpie and strengthened some of the lines. I mostly let the tinted paper show skin color but feel I could do more with it. This week I hope to do a few more sketches along this same line in order to learn how to use this medium.

This is a pen and pastel sketch on pastel paper.