Pastel is an amazing technique. You can use it for quick sketches. Or use it the old fashioned way as it was used in past centuries with several layers usually going from a layer of hard pastel (I use the conté square ) then layers of soft pastel (for me Rembrand) and highlights of very soft pastel (Schminck)
Old fashioned pastel is fascinating, you use very opaque chalk sticks and you can get a transparent oil finish. It is a great medium for portraits. I can’t show you recent portraits as they are private commissions
