Jumpstart Level 3: Glass With Lemons on Colored Paper

For a product labeled "Jump Start," I would have expected more detailed instructions. For example, "Add a touch of Burnt Ochre and French Grey 50% near the bottom of the reflection and in some of the cut crystal patterns" without identifying the shapes that need to be colored with each shade makes it a challenge. Also, the image is rather small -- about 5" x 6" -- so it's hard to make out and reproduce the detail. I may try again by enlarging the image and working from the photograph.

I was able to follow through the process with ease. My drawing is framable. I liked the process so well that I ordered the tiger to do next. Both are level 3 intermediate.

This was fun to draw and turned out great. While some of the illustrations are small, and they seem to change just a tad from picture to picture (as though the artist took progress pictures from different drawings) it was easy to follow and I get rave reviews when I share it with other artists. I started on the textured side of the paper which made the lemons look great, but wasn't ideal for the glass. So, I turned the paper over to the smooth side and started over. Worked fine. My first time using colored paper - except for my one excursion into black paper - and I was pleased with the result.

This was my first time using colored paper, and I like the process very much. I would prefer working on smooth, rather than textured paper, but that is my own preference, for the ease of obtaining very fine detail. I actually bought this kit to give to my sister as a gift, and then thought I’d try it first, to see if it would be too difficult, as she has only previously done one drawing. It definitely is not for a beginner! While there is lots of information given, unless you are quite experienced with colored pencils, I think it definitely would be too challenging. It would be lovely to have the option of paying a bit more and having the Canson paper and white transfer paper included. I could not even find white graphic transfer paper where I live, and so had to draw the image by hand, using a white pencil. I followed the instructions for awhile, and while they were very helpful at the beginning, as I got used to the process and order of applying pencil to textured, colored paper, after a while I found it much easier to just work directly from the reference photograph. The suggested palette of colors worked great. On the whole, it was a fun project, and a great reference photo to use an introduction to working with reflective surfaces and using Prismacolors on textured paper.