When I retired in 2011, I had had no notion of doing art but, following a couple of basic evening classes, I became absorbed in the practice of life drawing and portraiture. To date, I have mostly drawn - subtractive tonal drawing with charcoal or sanguine - and later using black and white Conte crayons on toned paper, taking inspiration from the work of Pierre Paul Prud'hon. I am now playing with oil pastels and oil markers, these latter being effectively a form of peinture a l'essence, or quick-drying oils.