What I was attempting was to get the orange pencil in focus and have the rest blurry. Clearly that did not happen. I tried different settings, different focal modes, manual focus. I'm kind of at a loss for the moment so if anyone has any suggestions please don't be shy.
Manual mode with low saturation in camera. 18-55 lens. Editing consisted of a crop and Cairo effect in Ribbet.
I think I realized what happened if I'm looking at it right. Most of the color pencil are on the same plane. If you push the pencils back (or forward) enough, except for the orange one, they should become out of focus like the black and pink pencil to the left, at a small enough aperture setting that is. Regardless, it's a beautiful image. Love the soft tones of color.
Thank you for the suggestion! I will try this again using your suggestion.