A few years ago I began a portrait of my sister during one of my attempts to fulfill my mother's wish for a portrait of each of her 4 children. None of my attempts have made it past sketch form, and I rarely get beyond a collection of reference photos.
However, this piece made it past the "sketch" and even was half complete as far as the colored pencil was concerned before I had to return to school and focus on more intimidating projects. (Let's face it, moms are a lot easier to please than professors!)
I stumbled across the piece again this last year (about 3.5 years later) and kept it at the back of my mind. Eventually, I was bitten with the desire to finish it and began working vigorously—praying that my lack of practice with both my prismacolor pencils and realistic portraits would not hinder me from finishing well.
I discovered that 4 year old prismacolor is very difficult to blend and thus the side of the face that is in shadow is much muddier than it should be—the more I blended, the more the pigment would flake off! From now on, I won't allow my projects to sit around for years before I try to finish them!! (as a result of my recent experience, THIS piece will likely remain unfinished)
Anyway, what do you think of the finished result? I know it's not perfect, but I'm pretty pleased considering that it's the first piece like this that I've done in ages!
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