Nice first try! “Black” isn’t an easy color to depict, and you’ve done a very good job of it. It is fortunate you were “forced” into using blue rather than black. If you can find any tutorials, you’ll see that dark blue, dark brown, dark red violets are used rather than black, and the results are much more appealing, and life like.
As for fixatives I recommend NOT using hairspray if you want to preserve the work for a long time. It will eventually yellow and destroy your paper. You don’t need to use any fixative if you’re using quality paper meant for pastels. Some pastel pads come with a protective sheet of glassine between each page. If that’s not available, you can use very slick tracing paper or better yet sheets of glassine between each page. If you still want to use fixative, be aware that the professional quality fixatives such as LasCaux or PrismaColor will least change the color. Have you tried the Canson MiTeintes paper?

Paggy has made some good points. If this was your first try at pastels, I think you are on to something. So…welcome to the pastel forum. If you don’t have the dark value pastels you want, you could use a soft charcoal pencil, then go over it with the color you wanted to darken.

For being new to soft pastels you sure have done a great job with them – especially with a limited selection! I’m really struck by how you have captured the look of an older cat. Her head is tucked down and I’ll be she spends a good part of her day sleeping like this. My old cat assumes this same pose and I try not to notice that his belly is a little saggier than it used to be. I hope you’ll try new pastels and new papers because there are so many options for us and they are all fun to explore. I look forward to seeing more!

What a sweetie! I’m new to pastels too. Exciting isn’t it?

Alison:wave:

Such a great job for being new to pastels. Well done!