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Hi April,
Good for you for drawing a self portrait from life! I really admire that. I'm not an expert in pastel but I do have a few thoughts about this work.
You've set it up so that you don't have a strong shadow pattern to work with on the face. When I squint it looks like there is not much difference in value between the lit side and the shadow side, so you are having to do close modeling using color. It would have been easier to show form if you had a slightly darker value on your shadow.
Another alternative would have been to set this up with not much shadow at all on your face. Lots of portraits are done this way, especially in paintings of women and children - they are set up with less dramatic shadow as well as less shadow area.
You did a nice job foreshortening on the three-quarter face angle, not easy to do. I also like the way you've put the highlights in the hair which helps to show the shape of the head as it faces the light.
I think the eastern nostril looks incomplete. I think if you really model the nose - find the cast shadow, the underplanes of the nose, the warm darkness of the nostrils, the terminator line of the shadow where the nose turns, the color of the nose bulb and the highlight - that does a lot to establish the solidity of the face.
I usually leave out or de-emphasize the neck muscles in women which is I guess an aesthetic decision not shared by everybody.
I hope the show goes well and let us know how it goes for you. Again, I'm proud of you for putting this in a show!
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