I enjoy creating works in pairs. These drawings were done when I was still a student and experimenting with craftsmanship. I made my own gesso with rabbit skin glue and whiting and applied it to some scraps of paper from a lithographer. When it was dry I sprinkled some ultramarine blue dry pigment on top and then brushed on rabbit skin glue to hold the pigment and spread it evenly over the paper. It makes a marvelous drawing surface. Terra rosa pigment makes a lovely pink paper, terre verte a nice green, yellow ochre and raw umber also work well. Sometimes I mix the pigment directly into the gesso and leave off the top layer of glue. The colored gesso alone makes a soft drawing surface, the glued surface is harder but the color is richer. I started my drawing with a red conte crayon, which, I learned, would have worked better on the unglued gesso. The problem was easily corrected by switching to a pencil and using a cross hatching technique. Then I went back with a white hard pastel to pick up the lights. This was done around midnight after working a morning job, going to school in the afternoon and working an evening job. The next night I decided to create a mate for my drawing so I repeated the same process, I knew the red conte wouldn't work well but I wanted them to go together. I matted and framed them with whatever I had lying about and hung them in my kitchen. When I met Elizabeth she loved them too and they still hang in our kitchen...where they have been for almost 30 years.....