A major large-format portrait — 25 by 33.5 inches — combining pencil line with color pastel tinting. The subject is a young woman with straight blonde or light brown hair falling at both sides of the face, her arms crossed at the lower torso, the face in near-frontal three-quarter with a slightly guarded or inward expression. The hair is tinted with warm golden-green pastel strokes, the face and neck receive brief orange-pink flesh tones, and the background receives the same warm tinting in places. The pencil line underneath provides the drawing's structure while the pastel gives it color and warmth.
The combination of pencil and color pastel in a large format is unusual in the new portfolio — the large-format works have generally been in single media (pencil, charcoal, ink). Here the mixed approach places the work in a tradition of tinted drawing — the academic study elevated by color into something closer to portraiture proper. The golden-green tinting on the hair is particularly effective, giving the hair a specific chromatic identity without the full commitment of a color drawing.
The figure's arms crossed at the torso — the self-containing, slightly closed posture — connects to the self-enclosing gesture series that runs through the figure drawings. Here in a large clothed portrait, the gesture reads as protective or thoughtful rather than physically exploratory. The face above the crossed arms is specific and observed: the brow line, the nose, the eyes with their downward tilt, the lips. This is a named person, observed with the same sustained attention Sidney brought to the figure sessions.