One of the few photos from my college days. I was posing on a wobbly log to impress a girl.
I decided to do a large drawing in pastel, using an arbitrary choice of colours. Since it is usually better to find a less than obvious way to start, I put the image on it's side and closed in for an odd composition.
I started with red and yellow pastesl looking for the white background shapes, not the figure and face. Because these shapes are abstract they are easier to see than the figure.
I turned it through 90 degrees and started blocking in areas of shadow. Somehow I find tracking tonal areas easier than lines.
When the image is the right way up I find it reads differently. It is now a person and that brings in too much stuff already in your brain and it is harder to be objective. So I put it on its side again to continue blocking in the tones.
I was now adding some white pastel and some brown to get more contrast.
To finish, while keeping it as a sketch, I used a bit of green to liven up the surface. I'm quite pleased with the result, but perhaps that's nostalgia!
The picture looks great. But you were never 20...