This isn't exactly a stellar example, but I've figured a few things out. I wasn't looking at an apple when I drew this, so it isn't like the photo real pieces in the how-to books, but I'm getting the hang of the color application. By the time I got to the leaf, I realized that the trick is to vary the complements by light and dark, according to the light and dark areas, because it is difficult to layer lights over darks. It can be done, but there is a limit, depending on how dark the first color is and the opacity of the top one. So, I'm starting to get an order of operations in mind for the process.
The wrinkle is that at the school bookstore, they want to charge the students over twice the commercial amount for a set of 24 colors. I'm probably going to have to settle for a set of 12 colors, which will mean the students will have to mix a lot of the colors they will want to use.
I think I'm going to supply them with a list with the Dick Black order numbers so they can order from there instead. It's kind of treasonous to my school, but geez. College is expensive enough.
Having a limited palette isn't all bad, though. When I started painting, I only had five colors to use, and I learned a lot about color mixing because of it. With colored pencils, since they are a dry medium, mixing really means layering. It is a little harder than squeezing out two colors of paint and swirling them together.
Because my students will probably only have 12 colors, I'm having to stick to those twelve myself. That denies me some of my favorites that I use in painting all the time, but, sometimes simple is better. I like the Steinberg book, Masterful Color, because the color theory is in line with my process. But, she must own every color Prismacolor makes! (I'm jealous!). We'll see what we can do with just 12!
