My homage to Fall. Someone on FB suggested I call this one "Squans". (Get it? squash + swans) I love that!
This was drawn with Prismacolor pencils on Bristol vellum.
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In other news, I was featured on the
colorindaily website for my drawings of knitting. Its a nice little blurb about me and my kitties and drawings. I appreciate the attention, so thank you Nadia!
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And in other other news, of a more personal nature, I'm starting to face the music about my elderly Mom. She's been in failing health, and is teetering on the edge of needing to be placed in care of some kind. She's been falling (with no serious injuries by some miracle - yet), and is a tough little lady, but at some point you have to come in and make some hard decisions. So I'm anticipating being caught up with that in the coming months, and not looking forward to it. My art production will certainly be down, but I will soldier on and do my best to keep up with things. I really want to get my next coloring book finished, and of course will manage whatever actual work comes in, but I most likely won't have all the Christmas cards and other new art I've been planning, done in time for the holidays. Sometimes "life" just gets the upper hand.
I AM happy that its Fall though! It means wearing socks again, and putting the down comforter back on the bed. We don't really have Fall Foliage happening here much, but the change in the weather and anticipation of the holidays is always welcome. The kitties are more snuggly that usual as well, which is the best.
"BLT"
15" x 15"
Prismacolor colored pencils on Stonehenge paper
BLT stands for Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. I honestly don't know if that's just an American, or English-speaking thing, or if it translates to other languages or cultures. Here, you just go into a restaurant and order a "BLT" and you might be asked what kind of bread you want it on, and maybe "toasted?", but otherwise they know what you're ordering.
Some places have fancied-up versions with avocado, which to me makes it something else altogether. A proper BLT should be on white toast, with mayo.
I had fun putting together the reference for this! I fried up some bacon, sliced some nice 'off the vine' tomatoes, rinsed some leaves of head lettuce, toasted up some plain white bread, and cracked open a jar of Best Foods mayonnaise. (It HAS to be Best Foods. )
The other fun thing was shopping for the frilly toothpicks. I am now the proud owner of a box of 1,000 of them, since that's the only way they come, apparently. So I am well stocked for a lifetime of BLT making!
This was the first work-in-progress scan I did. The toast was the most challenging part of the drawing. Lots of nooks and crannies.
And then the next, with the toast done, the toothpicks in, and the bacon and tomatoes partway there.
And then I didn't do any more work in progress shots. I wanted to just get it done, so I glued myself to the chair and didn't feel like getting up to scan.
I purposely did this drawing a little looser in style than my previous 'architectural food' pieces. It still has a formal layout, with the top, and section views. But I combined the "side" and "section" views by doing the individual quarters this way, and also let the sandwich itself be a little sloppy - the way they are in real life.
And then I thought it would be fun to show one of them eaten, with just the toothpick left.
Are you craving one now? :~)
I used all Prismacolor colored pencils for this, on Fabriano Artistico paper. Its 11" x 17".
This was a fun one! When the idea came to me, I googled 'fried egg' images to make sure no one else had done a piece like this. Lots of fried egg drawings, but nothing even close to this set up, so I figured I was good to go.
Most images were of an egg on a regular shaped piece of toast, like from a normal loaf. But I liked the idea of doing some really crusty sourdough, so went shopping and found the perfect loaf of French Sourdough. I fried a couple of eggs in butter so they'd have a bit of brown around the edges, and toasted up a couple of thick slices of the bread. One of the egg yolks broke in the pan, so there was only one 'good one' left. I plopped it on a piece of toast and dashed it to the studio to take some pics. I held my breath a bit on the 'section view' one, because once I cut that piece in half I had only a few seconds to shoot a pic before it all ran down all over the place. (I actually took the egg off the bread first, cut the bread in half, nicely, then put the egg back on top and cut it, so I didn't have a complete sloppy mess.)
You will probably be shocked to learn that I took a grand total of I think 6 pictures all together, and 3 of them were good enough to work from. I know some people take lots and lots of pictures, but I get impatient and just want to start working, so as soon as I have something that's good enough, I'm done. In my defense I will say that I'm not trying to do any fancy lighting or anything particularly sophisticated with these food pieces, so I can usually get adequate photos pretty easily.
Of course I had a whole dozen eggs in the frig, and was prepared to have to start over and fry up more in case something went wrong. But I got lucky. The practical side of me also likes that this made a really nice lunch, and that I have eggs and sourdough for the week!
Finished!
This has to be one of the most decadent things I've ever eaten (or drawn).
I used mostly Prismacolors, then a little Polychromo Caput Mortuum Violet (my favorite color!), and a Coloursoft Brown Earth. Its about 8" x 8" on 10" square-ish paper.
Not much else to say. I'll clean up the background and do prints.
Now its back to kitty drawings . . .
Fall Gingerbread
© Paula Pertile
Gingerbread, cookies, and colored pencils. And Fall! Some of my favorite things.
I tried out my new Caran d'ache Pablo colored pencils for this, and loved them. I used some Polychromos too, for more control. Both are oil based pencils, which I prefer to wax.
And do you know what? None of them broke in the electric pencil sharpener. (OK, one did, once.) But I probably jammed it in funny or something. Last time I tried to use my Prismacolors they ALL BROKE, over and over again. I was thinking part of the fault might be my sharpener, but now I know the sharpener is fine. So these new pencils are definitely 'keepers'!
No matter if it's a beautiful sweater, scarf, hat, mittens....whatever, 100% wool makes me itch!!
acrylic & Prismacolor pencils on bristol paper
(This was done a couple of years ago as a Christmas card design..."Fleece Navidad!)
I happend to use the bucket tool without knowing it and suddenly it came out close to this.
Adorable!! And I must try out these new colored pencils as well. I'm having the same issues with my Prismacolors - its so sad! sniff!