Walking back from Philadelphia's Flower show with my camera already handy, we came up on this gigantic, vivid street scene on Arch Street. I photographed it - inspired to paint Philadelphia's friendly culture on paper.
this painting and all my other paintings do not include finger smudging!
i have a policy of no finger blending and prefer to have the half sticks of pastels cover areas where needed even if it leaves the natural fiber and texture of the paper exposed. if it's a real tight place, I'll use a dry brush or sharp pastel pencil to get into tight places to add color.
Here is a video at a kiosk inside the state museum of Pennsylvania 2015