drapery

Tonight I am working on the drawing for a St Barnabas icon (the companion to the also unfinished St John the Baptist. . .)
Two thoughts:

1) What oh what would I ever do without water soluble pencil crayons (especially Venetian red)?
They are God's gift to iconographers.

2) I can really see how someone could become a complete drapery nerd. Drawing drapery is difficult (therefore bracing and character building) and endlessly complicated. I mean there are endless possibilities and levels of difficulty. I think this single phenomenon just /might/ have been responsible for the Renaissance.
Just a thought. . .