Tree Frog

I enjoyed playing with color. I am extremely frustrated by the breaking of the colored pencils. Seemed like every time I sharpened my pencil, the lead would break. I went through 2 entire purple pencils for the purple background -- probably half of that was due to the breaking. Does anyone else have this issue? Am I doing something wrong?

I was also frustrated with the way that my scanner picked up colors. Most of the colors in this drawing are pretty close, except for the yellow/goldenrod colors in the feet of the frog. They came out dark, bright orange instead of yellow in the scan.
**UPDATE** On 2/20/2013, I got a new scanner, and I re-scanned this drawing. I have updated the main file, and the colors are MUCH more true and bright than from the previous scanner.

Overall, I think I did pretty good, especially as a color pencil newbie. If any color pencil folks are viewing this, I hope I can get some feedback. I have thick skin and eager to learn, so don't hold back.

Reference
Progression

Materials:
11x14 Strathmore Bristol Smooth
Prismacolor colored pencils
paper mate skinny eraser stick
colorless blender