Pencil has a special place in my heart because I have been working with it for so long, and to me, it's THE basic artist's tool. It can achieve both soft gradients and crisp edges, dark black or pure white, rough or smooth; in short, anything you need to render can be done with pencil. There is also something beautiful about black and white images because they leave something for interpretation.
 

Portraiture in particular offers an opportunity to demonstrate the beauty I see in other people (especially to they themselves!), as well as show technical skill. Secondly, people connect with other people, even if they are within a drawing, and I have found that drawings with elements of portraiture are by far the most moving type of artwork for this reason.
 

My masking tape work is a fairly recent development. It's quite enjoyable to create; the tape has a very weak adhesive, so it can easily be removed or adjusted. In this way it's a very forgiving medium. Besides the process, I love the graphic images that can be achieved with tape, especially in contrast to the subtlety in my pencil work.
 

Working in other media keeps my comfort zone from shrinking too small, puts new tools in my belt, and often produces something better than I imagined.