 In this painting a nude woman demonstration in pastel the first few photos are not very clear but they do get better as we go on. I first drew a vertical line straight down the centre of the paper as the placement of the figure will be more or less in the centre of the paper. The woman is holding her posture in a vertical manner so a vertical line down the centre of her body gives us a clue of the angle.
 I then drew a tilted oval shape for the head and through this I drew a short diagonal line straight through the centre of the head which describes the angle of the head. What I am doing here is drawing a rough sketch of the woman and trying to get all the structure right first making sure that proportions are correct. It is a good idea to try and find reference points in your drawing, for instance holding the pencil horizontally at the top of the ear to see where the top of the eyebrow comes.
 This woman is kneeling on the bed with a silk sheet over her knees which has lots of folds so to draw these folds in can be very difficult. It is best to draw in all the largest folds and creases first and then on to the smaller shapes.
 Hands can be quite difficult to draw so concentrate on suggesting them first rather than drawing them in detail, just like in the above example draw in the largest shapes first. Here I am finding a reference point by holding the pencil vertically to the right hand side of the head to see where the ends of the fingertips come.
 After all the drawing has been done including the background where there will be a window and a curtain with light coming through I can then start to paint with pastel. I started on the hair first with a dark burnt umber broadly painting it in and not trying to keep inside my pencil lines I have already made otherwise the painting could end up too tight. It is best to be loose and bold if any figure drawing or painting, the final painting will have more life and vigour than any figure drawn or painted too carefully.
 Here I am using a medium burnt umber broadly painting in the shadows down her back which has very subtle tones and colours so good observation is needed here.
 I now started to paint in the lights using a light grey and also going in with a medium cadmium red over the burnt umber colour on her back. Painting is all about underpainting and overpainting so good observation is needed to see what colours lay beneath other colours.
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