Bad Weather Art

As we move from winter wind and snow into spring wind and snow I've continued to draw in the house while hiding from the inclement weather  Here is how my most recent drawings have turned out.

This last one is my friend Jane, who recently had portraits done by G. Mark Lewis at www.gmarkart.com.  I loved how the portraits looked, and I decided to try to draw one of them.  This is my first human drawing, and my first drawing on grey paper.  The grey paper was interesting.  I tried to use it as the middle shade, and I drew with white colored pencils for highlights as well as my graphite pencils and a black conte crayon for the darker areas.  Overall I'm happy with how this one came out, and I'm still dumbfounded that I can draw like this.  As I explained to Jane in the message I sent with the picture of this drawing,

"I swear I tried for years and years to draw and took classes in high school and everything, and I just SUCKED at it. These are the first drawings I've tried since the head injury, and I swear the brain damage shook something artistic loose in my head because now I can do it.  I do my best to look for the positive in things, and since I have to live with brain damage I'll take the artistic abilities with it"

To which  Jane replied,
"Or maybe drown in a few quarts of ice cream first. That's what I'd probably do THEN I'd look at the positive!"

So I then had to come clean and respond,
"Yeah, I say I look for the positive, but there's a lot of wallowing in self pity, too. Balance in all things, right?"