Thanks for everybody's input (Especially Karen's, my grandchildren will love reading about my technique!
). I'm going to try to scan in some of my stuff this week to put on here. I enjoy the results, and other people do too (I've sold several pencil portraits and generally get a good response), so I guess that's what's important. I have to work from photos, but I try not to just "photocopy" in pencil. The smudging is an effort to work in creating form with light and volume, without lines as much as possible, and create a more "painterly" effect, (the results can be debated). Maybe we can coin the word "pencilerly"?
Thanks for the link on "sauce". The picture posted is simply beautiful, I can't wait to read the article.
The question on "proper technique" took root after attending the conference in NYC. While it overwhelmed, excited, bewildered and encouraged me, it also raised a lot of questions I'd never been exposed to, the biggest being the question of working from photographs. I'll stop here so I don't get too far off topic and see if I can post my post-NYC thoughts on the right board.