There's a surprising story about the colors I'm using that need to be told.

Many fellow steemers have pointed the unusual choice of colors in my drawings since I've started to blog some of my sketches. Well, there's an explanation for it, part intentional part unintentional. Here's what happened.

_{These are the only color pencils I'm able to use. Wanna know why?}

1. The Intentional Part

It's been a few years I started to use watercolor pencils for sketching instead of tradicional graphite or charcoal. I'm a graphic designer for a living that sometimes makes traditional art by hobby. I'm really interested in how to maximize the visual impact of an artwork even using a restricted color palette. This part is a deliberate choice, inspired by many artworks I like to see on Pinterest. Some artists sketches have astonished me by simplicity but smart use of colors that pops on your face, like this early figure study from artist James Jean:

_{This single glaring
figure study by
James Jean has
been a hardcore
inspiration for
what I'm doing
nowadays}

---

_{And this is one
of my sketches
from a live studio
model session
inspired by
his style
around 2018}

---

2. The Accidental Part

Since I moved between countries a few times in recent years, I do not really have a place to call "my home" nor a way to caring art materials with me all the time. In 2020 enters the pandemic and I've been stuck by the lockdown. My old parents needed some assist so I moved to their home. That's when I started to sketch again and consequently sharing with this receptive #worldofxpiller and #art communities.
I was looking for any art materials to work with but trying to avoid leaving home. I've used coffee as background color to darken regular paper which din't really worked well. And started to make some archeology on dusty basement boxes to find anything I could use. I was surprised by finding some careless things from my college times. There where some cracked pastel crayons, ruined color markers, but perfectly intact watercolor pencils. The most colorful things were also found by my tomb-raiders nephew & niece before me and destroyed sustainably reused along the years I was far away. The good pencils are die hard survivors! Seriously! Not only having resisted nephew's sloppy hands but the burden of 20 years held inside cheap cardboard shoe-boxes. I couldn't even imagine that watercolor pencils could stay this good for so long!

_{Very promissing
nephew artwork}

---

3. The Current Stage

All this anecdote to tell you despite I used to play with similar colored pencil sketches before, ironically the colors I'm using right now are the only highlander ones available during the lockdown by a lucky accident. A restricted palette range between blueish-reddish-magentas that were fortunate enough to resist the test of time and kids appetite for destruction curiosity. I guess sometimes scarcity can force us to use more creativity, don't you think?

Hope you guys have enjoyed this post as I have.
Thanks for watching!

The World of XPILAR - PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART CONTEST WEEK #007