Nupastel Self Portrait

This is an award-winning self portrait I did in nupastel.  Nupastel is similar to charcoal, but has a tighter consistency and comes in different colors. I sat in front of a mirror and drew this.  First I lightly shaded the whole paper.  Then I did a simple outline of my face.  I concentrated on the darker values, for example around my eyes and nose.  I erased away the nupastel on the areas of lightest value such as the highlight on my forehead and nose.  After that, I filled in the medium values.  The technique is very simple, but makes a dramatic finished product.