A bump in the road

I haven't mentioned my drawing too much lately because I have hit a bump in the road. We recently entered into the arena of colors in our classes, and I was so excited to buy my colored pencils and pastels and just took them out to look at them. When it came to actually working with colors, I felt frustrated and lost. I just couldn't make it work. I think I bought cheap pencils, but they don't flow on the paper. They can't be erased (I am the eraser queen) and there is no blending to be had. ARGH!
The exercises did not go well and I was on the verge of just quitting, deciding that I had hit by "peak" and my "artistic" phase was over. To make matters worse, one of the classes involved drawing a cluttered room. If there is anything I hate, it's drawing furniture, walls, scenery. It's just boring to me.
This week, however, our teacher abandoned the book she is using, that has served us well up to this point, and took things into her hands. She bought fruits and let us pick them and draw them last week. Everyone was feeling a little like I was, that we had suddenly regressed and couldn't draw anymore.
We all began to draw, and suddenly there was silence as we all fell to work. Gabi gave us suggestions and, at first, we all felt strange building the layers of color. We couldn't see our fruits emerging. Near the end of the class, there they were. Live and in color. I used over 6 shades to work on the gourd. (Actually it's a kind of baby pumpkin or squash.) I finished up the tangerine (also with 5 or 6 shades of reds and yellows and oranges) at home and then added in the shadows. Unfortunately I had sketched in the shadows with an orange pencil (the table was orange, so that was the color of the shadow) and the line was too heavy making my shadows funny looking with the artificial lines. I still have to learn that you can't bear down with colored pencils, as the lines are uneraseable.
At least I felt there was something recognizable in the drawing, the shading is there, along with the right coloration. So maybe there is hope for using colors. First we have to master the colored pencils. Then on to pastels and watercolors. On my, there is so much to learn. So far, I am finding color theory the greatest challenge. I still don't look at something and see the light and all the colors that go into making the shades. Practice, practice, practice. (And buy some decent colored pencils!) Friday we will be drawing plants. How many shades of green do you think I will use then?