Crimson Sheets

A very beautiful woman hardly ever leaves a clear-cut impression of features and shape in the memory: usually there remains only an aura of living colour.

                                            William Bolitho

      At last!  This little lady is finally done.  She can stop sitting on my drawing board.  So far in this series of women with red this particular drawing has taken the longest to complete.  It turned out that it was more an exercise in working with colored pencil than it was in achieving value.  Having worked so much with oil paint I have grown accustomed to being able to cover up any color or value of color that didn't work within the painting with another layer of paint.  Once dark shades are put in with colored pencil, however, it is next to impossible to lighten them ~ much like watercolor.  I have a new respect, therefore, for colored pencil artists.  They must be very good at planning ahead!