It turns out that my Prismacolor pencils were just what I needed to put the finishing touches on my watercolor collage. I used goldenrod and violet-blue. This mixed-media still life includes cut-out scraps from printmaking projects, a watercolor background, clear acrylic medium used as adhesive, and Prismacolor pencil for shadows.

First I defined the foreground and background. Then I put shadows under my floating fruit. I shaded to give the composition depth. It helped me to photograph the first step and then look at it in Photoshop. I saw that more contrast was needed, as well as shadows on the stems, and the existing shadows needed to be larger.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating something using such a variety of materials. This was a new experience for me. I was uncertain how it was going to work out, and needed time to think about my options and what I wanted to express. But I am pleased with the results. Hopefully, I will be inspired to try this again, perhaps with a landscape next time.

As I read over this post, I am already thinking about using more of those printmaking scraps in my corner studies. They might just be what’s missing!