Jean,
Thank you. I'll be the first to admit that I've never had a great feel for color. I'm very intimidated by the process, due to lack of experience with pastel, or simply being a cement-head (my daughter's alternative name for knuckle-head). Although I hadn't made a pencil drawing since high school, it's all I did before that since I was four. Never used color until I started airbrushing when I was fifteen, and did that for about fifteen years but never had confidence using color. My old airbrush illustrations are on my website under the
gallery area. A bit of warning, they're a bit on the spooky side. The bottom row piece called "Twins" is the only pastel I've done without feeling any restrictions. I've posted my pastel portraits in the "pastel critique section", but I've never really felt freedom doing them. I worry about the color constantly, which I hope goes away once I work more with pastels.
Maybe if SVA had given me some scholarship money, I would have attended Mr. Mattleson's class, and my fear of color would have disappeared. By the way Mr. Mattleson, if you are reading this, I've always had incredible respect for your work both as an illustrator and portrait artist. If memory serves me correct, I went to one of your talks at the Society of Illustrators about 10 years ago during their Wednesday night gatherings. If that wasn't you then I blame it on my lack of sleep?
Wow, I'm sorry for babbling! Bye.