I have a set of Derwent pastel pencils (36-count tin), and am taking Phil Davies’ “Portraits in Pastel Pencil” class on arttutor.com. I was less interested in exactly matching the reference photo than I was in determining the best 10 colors to use. (We’re limited to a palette of ten, per the instructor, and he uses Faber-Castell Pitt pastel pencils.)

The first drawing was done on Rembrandt Talens pastel paper, and I dislike the look of the honeycomb hatched paper. Utterly ruins the drawing for me! The other paper used was Canson Mi-Tientes (smooth side). In both cases, a tinted gray paper was used.