"3 Musketeers Mini", © Paula Pertileimage is 8 inches wide (in real life the candy bar is 2 inches wide)
done with Polychromos and a pinch of Prismacolor red, on Stonehenge paper
I confess, there were times in the last stages when I got to thinking WHY am I doing this? Am I crazy? Could be.
But seriously. I think what I enjoy is the exercise of really "seeing". Drawing what's really there, as opposed to what you think you see. For example, when you look at an actual 3 Musketeers Mini candy bar, you see a shiny silver wrapper with red and blue lettering. It would be very tempting to just get out the Silver colored pencil and do the wrapper, then a single red and navy blue to do the lettering. Throw in some shadow and a highlight or two, and you'd be done.
But in reality, there is oh so much more to this. There are oodles of colors in the reflections - greens, reds, blues, of all shades. Then the shapes of the reflections and shadows are really complex. And there are warm and cool tones of greys throughout. When you take each 'sub-shape' and analyze it, its pretty crazy.
For example ~
This is the shiny bit top right, up close. Look at all those shapes.And this is down left ~
I think they're really cool little compositions all by themselves. If I were an abstract painter I'd just do something like this REALLY BIG ~ and would also probably make a lot more money!
(Hmmm ... maybe I'm on to something here ... )
For a lot of my children's book work, I make stuff up. It helps to keep practicing 'really looking' at details of things to make the 'made up' things look real-er. Of course it also helps to get models or make maquettes, too. But sometimes you just have to rely on your 'making it up' abilities, and the more 'looking' you've done at things, the better chance you have of making something believable. (and I apologize for all the 'single quote marks' in that paragraph)
I will do a step-by-step to put on my site in the next day or two.
~~~~
In other news, the ALA has announced the Caldecott and Newbury, etc. award winners.
You can read the whole list here on their site.
Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse won the coveted Caldecott. I've seen this book, and its bee-yoo-tee-ful.
This is the cover. YUM.
8 comments:
Paula, this post is going to stick in my mind. You have so clearly stated something that I have been trying to learn. You have showed it dramatically and stated it simply.
Thank you so much! I'll be thinking of you and this post fir a long time. You rock!
wonderful job....it definitely looks silver, till you take a closer peek and see all the subtle details and colors! i look forward to the tutorial soon. thanks for sharing your work with us...what great inspiration!!!
Great finish! You made that little candy bar beautiful.
Woo-hoo - what a fabulous finish, Paula! I echo what others here have said, you have put the case for doing this so well. Familiarity with objects like this stops us from really seeing the subtlety and beauty in them. Your work is inspiring - thank you :)
"I think what I enjoy is the exercise of really "seeing". Drawing what's really there, as opposed to what you think you see."
Well said and I believe a cornerstone to becoming the best we can be! Thanks for articulating this!
Not to mention an outstanding piece of work. Thanks for sharing the details as well.
Really nicely done, Paula.
Oh my, this is an amazing art work! And what I love about your colored pencil drawings is that when I see those details up close it still looks like drawing, so soft and beautifully done, yet when viewed in its entirety it is so stunningly real.
Thank you so much all of you!
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