Scumble your work by adding another layer of soft pastels over a layer of colour that you have fixed. This creates an interesting texture, and requires a certain amount of looseness and impulsivity. The application of the fixative will provide a different texture for the new layer of pastel to stick to. Building your soft pastel creation with layers will give you unique effects. Add colours on top of others for beautiful blends. Trial and error with light shades on top of dark and vice versa. You can use your fingers to blend your soft pastel artwork. Be very careful to clean your hands after blending so you dont accidentally mix the remnants of your blending on another part of the picture. You can also use blending stumps and get inventive and experiment with everyday items like cotton balls and buds to find your own style. Experiment with dragging different edges of the pastel over the paper. Draw with the end of the pastel, like a pencil for lines. Lean heavily for thicker and darker lines, lean gently for narrower detail with less depth. Using the square edge of the pastel will allow you to cover large areas very quickly, perfect for blending. Soft pastels are made to be broken. While some techniques are much easier to achieve when you break your pastel into smaller pieces so dont be gentle with them and remember that small and leftover fragments are perfectly useful and can be ideal for blending small areas, dusting and much, much more. Soft pastels are the perfect tool to experiment with different types of paper for a huge array of effects. The use of toned paper is common and will affect the colours you are putting down for a whole new world of colour possibilities. Because soft pastels are made from pigment, you will get different results on different surfaces. If you want to do lots of blending, a smoother surface will make it easier but an abstract piece on a heavily textured material has the potential to look 3d.