One thing I do notice is that keeping the pencils very sharp and using a light touch helps keep everything blended together. I can then darken shadow areas as needed, without having too much heavy color already on the paper. This also allows for better blending of different colors. For example, on the darkest shadows of the rose itself, I'm using three different Faber-Castell Polychromos colors - light purple pink (started with this), middle purple pink, and dark red.
