Patricia,
It looks like it's coming along and as you've said, the lights and darks would provide better contrast. I've been using an 8B graphite pencil also, but will switch to charcoal pencil to get better darks and it will avoid the shiny look. I will not abandon graphite, charcoal will just be an added tool. I used to use Nupastel white, but heard it is not archival, so am using charcoal white. The brand is Derwent chinese white, don't know if that's the best, but bought it to give it a try. Would like to find something archival that puts the white in as good as Nupastel does. I posted a better example of Ruby2 in my thread, plus a closeup showing how much white I like to apply. It's not as much as Ryder, but I do like his style.
Hope you have a great time at his workshop, I'm jealous. I wanted to take Robert Liberace's figure drawing class, also in January, but business has slowed, and I can't afford to take the time off and the expenses associated with it.
