A cowboy with a lasso against a cloudy sky... seemed simply enough. No complicated background, one lone figure, not even much clothing. I did not anticipate the complexity and the tedium involved with rendering rope in pastel. I do much of the work with my fingers, but here I needed to also employ quite a bit of pencil work to get that braided look of rope. Usually areas that need that intricate touch are small, whereas this just seemed to go on for miles.