Tuesday, September 15, 2009



This one turned out to be a little bigger than the blueberries... at 12 inches wide. I did it again with Prismacolors on Fisher 400 paper.

Someone asked me about using Prismacolors again when I've said in the past that they were not my favorite pencils. Like all the pencil brands every brand has pros and cons. Pros for Prismas I would say are the many colors (especially the new colors they added), and the durability of them (meaning they don't smudge). There are loads of things I don't like about them - the wax build up, wax bloom, and the way the push you to be really detailed.

Anyway... instead of telling you what I changed from the reference I took in the last post, I'll let you all tell me! :-)

8 comments:

Carolina said...

Hi Nicole!
This is a lovely piece...
I feel so nerd but I can't help it and I'll answer your question: I compared both the reference photo and your final painting and found: showing more mountain than in the reference photo, the trees on both sides look 'slimmer', I guess to show more of those beautiful blue mountains, the colors are warmer (?), and the sky doesn't have so much detail/clouds so that the fruit gets all the attention... (you asked! :)
Best regards,
Carolina

Michael Finley said...

Lightened the values in the foreground, held the values in the middle ground, extending the dark of the middle ground to the left, cut back the middle ground on the right out of the way of the leaf, and darkened the back ground.

Darkened the shadows and made the edge of the board very bright yellow.

Did not draw the water stain of the edge of the board.

Eliminated the leaf shadow on the apple.

Jo Castillo said...

I agree on the changes. This is so beautiful. Wow.

Angela Finney said...

Beautiful -- thanks for your previous post on developing reference photos also -- very, very, helpful. I think Carolina and Michael covered all of the changes I can spot.

I use Prismas also -- they work well for me on mainly Ampersand pastelboard. Mainly they are the only pencils that I can get open stock w/i driving distance. I see Blick carrys Polychromos open stock now and I may try them more because of this.

Interesting observation that Prismas force one to go detailed, not sure I know what you mean in terms of how other brands may not do this.

Paula Pertile said...

Really nice Nicole.
I don't like Prismas either. :~p

Belinda Lindhardt said...

Just love it Nicole. Love the concept and the application i would definitely have this one on my wall :)

Michael Finley said...

What time is you opening on the 25th?

readingsully2 said...

That is a great apple. :)

Treasure Hunt tomorrow. Hope you can make it, Nicole.