Thanks man. Its all smoke and mirrors, actually. The initial drawing is rough and sketchy, but after I'm done I smudge the whole drawing with my finger or some tissue. This gets rid of most of the sketch lines but leaves a fuzzy outline of the figure. I then go over it again with a sharpened pastel pencil - I can press harder and be more confident since the sketch is already there. White highlights go on last and its all done.
Thanks for breaking it down for me. I'm going to give that a try. I have a nice scrap of Canson paper I'd like to use for a drawing like this one. This is a good strategy for tomorrow night.