Oh gosh, pastels. I have a fear of them. And yeah, I was freaking disappointed too. The manga certainly does make a point that he drops the smoking after he gets revenge. Even so, the way the zippo was taken advantage of worked pretty well considering the censorship.

Awesome I love his expression, very intense! I like the smoke too ^^
Great work!

Yes, this kind of censorship looks so stupid...

Thank you!!

if this is your first time with pastels I"m going to kick your ass, but if it's just trying out the new set then nevermind.
Regarding Shika's smoking all I can say is , I'd rather see it cut then they pull a One Piece and turn it into a lollipop ^_^"
as for the pic repare for fangirling
omg the smoke and the hand is so well done (hands are hard) and his face!!! It not only looks like him but the expression, it's perfect , contemplative and sad and determined all at the same time.
Is this a scan or a photo? if a scan how did you keep it from smudging?
About the random pastel all over the piece, a good trick I picked up is baby wipes. Keep a couple of them out near your work surface, whenever you're putting your pastels down to do something simply use them to wipe your fingers.(this is also good if you use your fingers to blend, helps prevent that whole turn everything black thing) by not letting it spread past your work surface it helps keep it from taking over the room. The baby wipes are wet enough to take the dust plus the mild soap helps to, and it the moisture usually dries in seconds (or keep a towel next to the baby wipes for hand drying) so you're not touching pastels with wet fingers. They're also REALLY handy for cleaning off the table afterwords, picks up the dust and then you just toss em

--
Urahaha: Nice fleeing!
Ichigo: Oh shove it! It's a defensive strategy!
(from Bleach)

of course you STILL have idiot s who say "smoking is bad for me? i didn't know that"

--
Urahaha: Nice fleeing!
Ichigo: Oh shove it! It's a defensive strategy!
(from Bleach)

just noticd one small tiny tiny mistake (and it speaks volumes about my obsession with Shika that I noticed it at all) at this point in the manga he's wearing the stud earring (that they got from Asuma *sniff) not the hoop

--
Urahaha: Nice fleeing!
Ichigo: Oh shove it! It's a defensive strategy!
(from Bleach)

I tried using pastels very long time ago - when I was in school - and I didn't get the idea how to use them properly. Now I took them after a long break, and they seem much easier for me now...
(I'm starting to think that EVERYTHING is easier than the watercolour - why on earth it is my favorite technique???
)

It is a scan. I didn't fix the surface yet, and I didn't do anything to prevent it from smudging, my scaner is just careful with everything I give it , but later on I think I'll use the hairspray to cover the picture - I use it for pencil works.

Thanks a lot for the advise about wipes!!! Than should work.

Oh! Thanks, I missed this!

"(I'm starting to think that EVERYTHING is easier than the watercolour - why on earth it is my favorite technique???
)"

one word: masochism

--
Urahaha: Nice fleeing!
Ichigo: Oh shove it! It's a defensive strategy!
(from Bleach)