Hand-drawn portraits from photographs in colored pencil or graphite

I am creating this page because I am passionate about my portraits! I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember, encouraged by my mother's passion for art. I began winning awards in high school for my graphite portraits and the commissioned work began then. I was the only senior at our high school that was actually getting paid for their art! ;o) I did put the art supplies away for a good number of years to raise three children, work, and then later survivea divorce. Four years ago I met and married a most wonderful man who happens to be an amazingly talented carpenter. (You should see my walk in closet and two bathrooms!) He didn't know about my passion for drawing. Two years ago, the law firm I was working in as a legal assistant closed its doors and I found myself temporarily unemployed. There are only so many floors to scrub and cobwebs to battle in any given day. Boredom sunk in and I made a clandestine trip to my most favorite store in the world: Dick Blick. I guiltily spent $15.00 on pencils and papers, came home and hid myself away in a corner of the basement where I did my first graphite portrait in over ten years. To make a very long story short, my husband was so impressed that he not only purchased a ton of graphite pencils, papers, and assorted supplies, he also presented me with the most fantastic art table I'd ever had the privilege of sitting at! It even has a comfy chair that swivels and goes up and down! ;o) Everything has sort of snowballed since then. Now I find myself the proud owner of my own website, suzansportraitstudio.com, and the commissions are beginning to trickle in once again. I even have my own art studio in our home. I'm no longer hidden away in a corner of the basement! Last year Kevin purchased nearly every set of Prismacolors that Dick Blick has and gave them to me. "I want to see what you can do with these." Yikes! I'd never worked in colored pencil before. How the heck did he expect me to use these things? I am now officially addicted to this medium! In November of 2007, I was commissioned to create a colored pencil project for a major truck manufacturing company in our area. They build really BIG trucks there! That was a privilege and an honor and the original painting now hangs in the office of the plant manager. Cool! Several weeks ago, Kevin gave me a book on colored pencil painting written by my favorite colored pencil artist Anne Kullberg. I'm now able to use these magnificent tools to create portraits that I think are pretty darned good!