I decided it was time to have a go at producing something in colour. Having given a lot of thought to the medium I was going to try, I finally settled on pastels. I’d been looking forward to trying something different to the monochrome graphite drawings for a while. The first drawing was always going to be something of an experiment. The process started off in a fairly demoralising way, but as the picture started to take shape, it became a lot more satisfying and enjoyable. I don’t think it’s possible to make the picture look good in the early stages. A couple more layers of detail later and it wasn’t looking much better. Once the highlights started going in, however, it was beginning to take shape, and I resolved to press on with it. Pastels are very different to use than the graphite I’m more used to. They are forgiving, nice to blend, overlay and even mix. On the other hand, they’re almost impossible to maintain a sharp point for more than a couple of strokes, there’s a limit to how much pastel the paper will accept, and the whole thing can be very easy to smudge. Since this quick iPhone photo I’ve added more detail, and have more still to add, then a bit of tidying up, then I will make a start on the other eye.