Hi David, I think you would need to apply more layers on top to even out the tone. I figured that softer leads have a tendency to follow and pronounce the structure of the paper. I go over these rough patches with a harder mechanical pencil. (H2 and 0.5mm) Very lightly and try to fill the holes. That helps to even out the tone some way. Here is an example of another Barque plate. You still can see the grain and in some places the main direction of the strokes, but overall the tones are even. (now that I look at it, I see more places where I could have put in more work...:) Hope that helps.

Besides the roughness of the paper, I found that layering layers of tone with harder pencils (H, H2) helps to even out the tone a lot. Don't press hard, just apply lot of layers very lightly. I use a mechanical pen with H2 lead. It's kind of tedious but very relaxing. Check out some of the videos from/with Stephen Bauman.

Hi Richard, Really nice shading. I like the way you defined the form and anatomy. Great pose, captured really well. On your question. It kind of depends on what you want or how the drawing should look like. When I cover up the head and arms of your drawing I don't see anything amiss. (besides the slightly too harsh center highlight on the torso...:) It looks like a very balanced, well defined drawing. It might be low contrast, but beautiful done so. I don't miss any highlights. (I'm ignoring the arms and head, since there are some contrast imbalances with the other parts - I want to stick with your actual question) If you want very distinct highlights you might need to go a little bit darker overall. I would suggest you simple try it by developing the values step by step and keep the steps in balance over the whole drawing. This way you can stop when you reached a point where you are satisfied. A fun practice is to use toned paper and white crayon. There you can draw explicit highlights as you like...:)