November is apple season, apple pie, apple dumplings, apple cider, apple crisp, you get the idea. It’s also time to start shopping for Holiday gifts for those creatives in your life. I have a tutorial for you and the kids that takes you beyond the coloring books that have become so popular. Colored pencils are a great medium to learn because they’re easy to travel with and require virtually no set up or clean up time. Prismacolor is my favorite brand and any size set makes a great Holiday gift. Many art supply stores sell these pencil separately so you can easily add to your collection at any time. I like to add a few grays to any set or some of the softer colors that can be used for mixing.

In this video I show you have to render highlights called tints and shadows called tones to make the apple really look 3 dimensional. I use gray paper because the colors really pop off the gray but white drawing paper works just as well. Click here to shop for good quality construction paper for colored pencil drawings, I use slate. This gray paper is also great for black and white drawing which may be a subject of an art lesson in the future. Prismacolor Premiere Pencils can be found at Highlands Art Garage store.

The video explains all the supplies and walks you through every step.