Friday, October 21, 2011

M&Ms


© Paula Pertile
4 x 6 inches, Prismacolors on Stonehenge

This was fun! I did exactly what I set out to do - just highlight one of each color of M & M, and leave the rest in 'black and white'. Of course the photo reference was all color, but that just seemed too predictable. Not sure what statement I was trying to make - none, really. Just wanted to try something different is all.

I went over the French Grey grisaille drawing lightly with a couple of browns - Brown Ochre and Chocolate, to warm them up a little.

I never realized that M & Ms weren't all exactly the same size, nor are they all perfectly round. Some are a bit 'off', which kind of drove me nuts. 

Another thing that's been driving me nuts is my electric sharpener. I have an Xacto School Pro, which is usually fine, but for whatever reason it EATS Prismacolors. Coloursofts, Polychromos and Luminance all hold up well. Prismacolors - break, break break, break, BREAK. After a lot of harumphing and a few bad words, I finally resorted to sharpening them by hand with a little tiny hand held sharpener - the one that comes in the Prismacolor set, actually. And it worked beautifully. I can't believe how long it took me to get the bright idea to stop using the electric one! 

2 comments:

Sarah Melling said...

I love partially colored drawings! This is great!

Certain colors break really often for me(peach beige!)and I do use graphite in my electric sharpener (Boston brand). I have the little Prismacolor sharpener, but I'm much too lazy to use it all of the time! I know that once a pencil has been dropped hard on the floor that the core can be broken, and will break off in any sharpener. Fun, fun!

Feathers said...

I won!!!I was right!!!! M&Ms!!! I love to win!-Big Grin!I'm loving this--just the right amount of color to make it right, and it just looks right to leave the others like you did.
Too bad about the prismacolors breaking in the sharpener--I've been using primarily Polychromos for some time now--have been a little concerned about the future of Prismas.