Alyona Nickelsen, owner and author of [link] and teacher of some incredible online classes in colored pencil realism, has just published The Colored Pencil Painting Bible, a big fat satisfying volume that covers numerous techniques.

Alyona's techniques are interesting. They vary quite a lot, she roughens paper, uses Odorless Mineral Spirits and solvents, uses sgraffito and lifting to lighten areas and covers every tool it's possible to use with colored pencils painting.

Her chapters dealing with composition, design, drawing and using Photoshop to alter your photo references and test colors are fantastic. Her prose style is excellent, putting complex art topics and jargon into everyday language easy for a beginner to follow.

On her web site, there's a special edition available in limited quantities where she signs the book and also includes a sample piece of white Stonehenge paper plus a DVD with her Red Delicious Apple demonstration and a CD with photo references and printable outlines for every project in the book. This is a good encyclopedic reference.

It's a great addition to my library which includes Arlene Steinberg's Masterful Color, Cecile Baird's Painting Light in Colored Pencils and many Gary Greene volumes. Many of Alyona Nickelsen's techniques and color combinations are specific to her and produce results as beautiful as any of these authors. She has captured and held a strong place in my lineup of favorite colored pencils books -- and the video is great too.

In her video, Ms. Nickelsen's soft Russian accent is charming. She separates her narration from the sequences where she's drawing, a good solution to distraction of thinking about either the narration or watching her hands. One thing that became very clear in the video is the different ways she holds the pencils to get pressure and texture differences and where along the shaft she holds it.

I'd seriously recommend getting her special collection. The video won't be released on its own and you can always use another piece of white Stonehenge.

Ms. Nickelsen also includes all the lightfastness ratings from the manufacturers of artist grade colored pencils in the back, including the new Caran d'Ache Luminance. These charts are convenient.

She also has some specific suggestions for testing and organizing color patches that I haven't seen anywhere else -- they make total sense to anyone overwhelmed by too many pencils in too many colors who may wind up creating unexpected mixtures or unhappy consequences from not quite understanding the pigment combinations in what are sometimes very simular hues with different effects in mixtures. She's invented several cool ways of testing combinations before you apply them to your good paper.

If you have Adobe Photoshop, her tips on using it are specific and great for getting effects useful to any colored pencils painter or reference photographer. I'm having a little trouble translating those to Gimp but I have some idea of what to look for in the Gimp menus from her descriptions.

The book is also available at Amazon and regular bookstores. It's from Watson-Guptill, a major publisher, so you should have little trouble finding it anywhere -- but I would still recommend ordering it from www.BrushAndPencil.com because of her delightful video, useful references and outlines CD and Stonehenge sample. The site is well worth exploring too. Her classes are interesting and I subscribed to her newsletter a long time ago.

While she gives information on all the major artist grade brands, her demonstrations are entirely given in Prismacolors and it doesn't take that many specific pencils to do one. Red Delicious Apple takes only eleven pencils, five of them in the 12 color set.

We are Prismacolor artists and we are proud!



Check out ~freelancers, a club for building art careers, selling art, marketing art, gaining commissions and focusing on career as well as art activities like art duels, challenges, contests, and discussion.

Also check out ~g-l-o-v-e Traditional Art club: many Prismacolor artists are involved, it's large and thriving!

We've also got a Prismacolorists forum that needs some lovin' --[link]




Prismacolorists 2009 Contest

We are still deciding about our 2009 contests, so be sure to keep a look out for a future notice concerning contests so you don't miss out!!



Coloring Challenge Print out Cockatoo -- Colour
It! by ~alilone and color it in Prismacolor products, then repost your version to the club and link to the original as well as back to ~alilone in your comment!

My 100 Pic Challenge: [link]
Use the 100 themes listed to created 100 different pieces. Only one theme per piece. There is no time limit so have fun. Let =DavisJes know you are taking the challenge if you decided to take the challenge.
Alphabet Challenge: [link]
Pic a series and each use each letter of the alphabet for one character from the series. Let =DavisJes know you are taking the challenge if you decided to take the challenge.

Original Challenges:
Shorties: Draw something using the shortest pencils in your set
All The Colors Draw something using every color you have

by

by


Long Shots Draw something using the least used colors, the longest pencils in your set


The Shell Challenge by *karincharlotte, do a Deviation using

for your reference in any medium and notify *karincharlotte, if you use colored pencils, markers or any Prismacolor products in your Deviation, then please also note *robertsloan2 and I will post your thumbnail into the Shell Challenge footer!

Actually if you do any of these Challenges and note *robertsloan2, I'll post thumbnails, we should get credit for doing these!



To join the club: send a note to *Prismacolorists with "join" or something like that in the subject line, or send a note to *robertsloan2 with "join Prismacolorists" in the subject line. I may not spot it if you ask to join in a Deviant Comment or comment or something.