I'm painting Again

It's been a while since I painted; more than 2 years, in fact. What has been keeping me from it was the inertia and finding the time and the mood. 

Four things got me out of my inertia, 

- I had woved not to browse the net for a week (i'd begun to realize my compulsive habit to keep checking news sites)

- I sprained my back on Thursday and had been bedridden over most of the weekend. 

-  A beautiful gift of a pencil set, that I spent 2 hours in bed, sharpening (there were 120 colored pencils in the set)

- A set of books, I had borrowed from the library. One 'Painting beautiful skin tones with color & light' in oil, pastel and watercolor - by Chris Saper' really got me itching to try my hands at a portrait again. 

It's a portrait of my kid brother making a face. Medium - colored pencils and oil pastels on paper.  

It's not as good as I had like it to be. I messed up the left eyebrow, left side of his chin and the values are patched up..  but it's a start and I'm happy to have started..