An experiment

The cords to my scanner are in the storage bin, I think, so instead of a semi-crappy scan, we have a very-crappy photo. The eye on the left was pretty much ruined by a glare from the lamp which I couldn't fix no matter where I positioned it.



I mistrust my skill in handling color, even when working in oil paints, and I never made myself learn to use colored pencils correctly. I don't think I've touched any in the past ten years. But I found myself picking up a pack of them the other day with the feeling that I had better learn to work with them, or give up any hope of progressing further in general. I could tinker endlessly with line and shading and improve technically without coming any closer to being able to accomplish what I want, which is to give form to personality as accurately as I can see and depict it. Not only hue, but whole shades of meaning are lost or at least altered when there is an involuntary restriction such as a limitation to black and white. I was afraid they would always be beyond my reach because I don't have a natural understanding of how to use colors. But this is not as discouraging as I was expecting. It's just possible that I might be able to learn.