Thursday, October 27, 2011

tic tac toe



Just had to do one. more.
This is about 4.5 inches square, all done with Prismacolors.
I used a light touch and kept these very unburnished on purpose. 

I think I'm through with candy for a while. 
Just for a while.


Speaking of Prismacolors ~


They're coming out with a new set of 150 pencils, which includes the Deco colors they had retired, as well as some other new ones. Check it out here on their blog.

And congratulations to Ester Roi for having her art featured on the new set!

And while I'm at it, congratulations to Nicole Caulfield for having her art on the new Derwent Coloursofts tin!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Fall Beans


All done!
And for sale in the shop (the original as well as a print).
These were done with Prismacolors on Stonehenge paper, and are about 4.5 x 5.5 inches.

What's next? I have some picture booky things to work on, and am also being pulled in a weird fine art / stitchery direction. The cooler weather is like fuel for me, it makes me want to make things and be productive.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Jelly Beans WIP



Continuing with the candy. These are Jelly Bellys, in some nice Fall colors.
I'm using Prismacolors. The palette just seemed right for these.
I have this and another small one lined up. So I will burrow in today and 'color'.

I mentioned last time that I started using my wee little tiny hand held sharpener because my electric one was breaking the pencils so much. Well, I'm still using it, and loving it. I find that its not any more trouble to use than the other one, and an added bonus is that its QUIET. And it sharpens to a needle point. So sometimes 'old school' rocks. I imagine it will get dull after a while, but it will be cheap to replace. (And the cats are loving that they can nap in peace.)


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! 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Another WIP



Trying something different with this, just for fun.
I'm not saying what this is yet, but it will be obvious soon enough.

Its 4 x 6, and all done with Prismacolor French Greys so far.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Heath Bar finished


All done.


Click on this next one to see how it progressed.




Now that I have this out of my system, I can move on to other things.
I was just itching to do a piece of candy!

Heath Bar WIP




Well the cat's out of the bag now on what this is. 
Yes, I've broken into the Halloween candy. And you know I had to rip open several of these before I got one with just the right 'tear'. This is a mini, not the full sized bar. And I'm doing it a little larger than life. This is about 5.5 inches square. Polychromos on Stonehenge, my favorite.

I know I said a few posts back (when I did the invented pod drawing) that I was tired of doing "slavishly copying photo reference" kinds of pieces. But here I am. I guess it depends on the subject, and what mood I'm in. I like to do both. I really have a 'thing' for candy and candy wrappers. There's something architectural about them, discovering all the little shapes of colors hidden within. They're almost like little puzzles. oooh, maybe I should deconstruct one, and just draw all the little shapes, separated, and let people guess what they are. 
Yeah .... or maybe not. 

Hope you're all enjoying a nice Fall weekend, getting pumpkins and doing harvest kinds of things. I have some pumpkin bread calling from the kitchen, for later. I wish pumpkins were in season all year 'round! 




Thursday, October 13, 2011

New WIP


I know, it doesn't look like much right now.
They never do at this stage though, do they?
I'm back to my Polychromos for this. And this is two very light layers so far.
And no, I'm purposely not telling you what it is. Yet.

I'm doing a "like my Facebook page and leave a comment" thing over on my FB page.     http://www.facebook.com/PaulaPertileArt
I will draw a name out of a hat of those people who leave a comment, and he or she will win a print of this when its finished.

This is small - about 6" square. And edible. And seasonal.
:~)

~~~~~~~

Here's an update. Forty five colors later in about 1 square inch ...

Monday, October 03, 2011

House Portraits

a residence in San Francisco, 2011  © Paula Pertile
(click to see this larger)

One of the hats I wear that I don't advertise much is "architectural renderer". 

I used to do a lot of this, some for private clients and some for print, for quite a while. The print clients have sadly largely gone the way of the dodo, thanks to the economy and the end of budgets for hand done art in favor of clip art or photography, or the demise of the publications all together.

So I've decided to dust off my portfolio a bit and start offering my skills to anyone who might need or want a rendering done of their home or business. 

This was done with black colored pencils. You see a lot of black and white building 'portraits' done with pen and ink, which I also do, (and love), but I thought something in black pencil would be a nice change. Its a softer look.



I used my handy dandy black pencil swatch chart I did a while back to choose a range of blacks that would make greyer or blacker blacks - much like how you would use different grades of graphite pencils to control the values in a graphite drawing. For this one I used Polychromo and Coloursoft blacks, and a variety of textures and marks to make the picture. 



I'll be adding more black and white samples, as well as some in color, to my etsy shop in the coming days. These make nice Christmas presents, and now is the time to start thinking about commissioning something like this! If you're interested, please email me. 

** I've added this sample as a Custom 8 x 10 House or Building Portrait to my etsy shop, here.