This is a colored pencil painting entitled "Tools of the Trade". After deciding which pencils I will use in rendering a piece of art, I place them in a laboratory beaker coffee mug. (Remember, I'm trained as a scientist!) This makes it much easier to reach for and select the desired pencil when I need it. After using this sorting method for most of my paintings, I suddenly realized that this would be a perfect subject for a still life painting. I photographed pencils in the sorting beaker and this is the basis for the artwork you see here. The piece is done on museum quality Grafix drafting film using Farber-Castell Polychromos pencils. The size of the artwork is 11 X 14 inches.