The assignment was to draw myself using only three pastel colors.  Knowing that I wasn't too good in achieving a likeness of myself (or thinking that I wasn't, in my usual no-self-confidence manner), I decided to utilize props that would distract from the face -- hence the scarf, the dark glasses, and the general's cap (which is a real army hat worn by a USSR Military General in World War II; through my parents' friend's parents, it was passed on to me as a gift).  After I received news that this scrawny drawing won first place in the highly competitive annual DuCret School of the Arts Show, I gained a whole new respect for it, though I still couldn't comprehend why the judge chose it of all the other masterpieces I saw there.