Colored pencil musings

Colored pencil intrigues me. I can recall using colored pencils when I was a child, but I never liked them much because the colors were so weak. I didn't know there was such a thing as "artist's colored pencil," or maybe there wasn't back then. It always seemed to me it would be easy to do colored pencil drawings, but now that the pencils are better, the finished works look more like paintings--and they don't look easy. Several years ago I was exhibiting in an art fair where a colored pencil artist was working on a piece about 18" x 24". The fair lasted two-and-a-half days and wasn't well attended, so she spent nearly the entire time working on the piece. At the end of the weekend she had completed a section less than six inches square. It was beautiful, but I realized that I don't have the temperament for colored pencil--it takes too long. I read somewhere than one artist takes thirty hours, still another works for three months on a colored pencil piece. I admire that kind of persistence, but I guess that's why I'm a watercolor painter. There's no denying the beauty of colored pencil, though. Look at these pieces by Janie Gildow.