Last night I finished my opus, a very complicated drawing of a group of people taken in Jerusalem so naturally I titled it 'Jerusalem'. The drawing didn't turn out as I had hoped due to many factors. For one, the picture was taken at night, which created a lot of shadows, two, there were a lot of faces in the picture, and many of those faces were small, which is a very hard (and very critical) feature to draw accurately. A slight misplacement of shadow, or the addition of too much, can make any face unrecognizable. As well, due to the darkness and the shadows, many things blended into one another and I couldn't tell where the borders were. I still can't figure out where one guy's hair ended and the coat of another person began. Perhaps I will fix the flaws in this picture later but for now I'm moving on. I've spent enough time at this work, this piece, and have made the 'I'm done with it!" call. 
     So, whew, that's done. I'll never take on such a complicated subject again, unless I can clearly see definition. 

     Anyway, my next picture is going to be drawn with colored pencil. I don't know if this sounds in any way exciting to the reader but to this writer/artist, it's a huge step into a brave new world. Colored pencil. WOW!
    That's gonna change EVERYTHING!
     And I don't know if it will be for the better because black and white is pretty cool but I have to give colored pencil a try. 
   My first attempt at colored pencil, I will draw a female. I don't know yet if it will be a portrait or a full figure picture, but it's going to be only one person on this 'canvas'. Drawing in color will present me with a series of different challenges. Shading I'm right off concerned about, color matching, and the overlaying of colors, is that even possible? Will the colors be too bright, too dark, make the work look too cartoonish? Lots of potential issues. 
     Should be fun though, since I have determined that I will spend far less time on any one drawing, which is something that keeps a piece in the enjoyable range. And, in doing this art thing, I've surprised myself again and again.

     You just don't know what you're capable of unless you give it a go.