She even found an old set of watercolor paints and some old brushes and was thrilled when color appeared on her paper. Still, her work seemed to be nothing more than sketches with color. She still had a lot to learn. In class, Miss Woods told them that to be a real artist you had to go to art school. At art school the students drew from statues and plaster casts, and sometimes they sketched live models. Emily saved her pocket money and bought plaster casts of hands, lips, noses and eyes from the Victoria tombstone maker who used the casts to help him model angels for his tombstones. At home, Emily set the plaster casts on the windowsill in front of her easel where she could look at them and draw. She filled paper after paper with hands, lips, noses and eyes. She felt satisfied with her work, but still, she felt that itch of uncertainty. Were the drawings any good? She couldn’t tell. One day, Emily stood at the window in her bedroom looking out at the bare branches of trees and the gray sky.
