Rachel the Pig

 

12/25/21 Caran d'Ache Prismalo pencils in Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook

For many years, one of our Christmas traditions was to exchange ornaments. After 30-plus years, though, the collection got out of hand, so in recent years we have made only occasional additions. This year Greg gave me a couple of ornaments of local icons made by a local company. This is Rachel the Pig, the Pike Place Market’s mascot, whom I sketched in the (bronze) flesh years ago.

In general, I’m not a big user of metallic colored pencils – I prefer the challenge of emulating metallic colors by using standard colors. But sketching Rachel was a fun and irresistible opportunity to use the gold/silver bicolor in my Caran d’Ache Wonder Forest Prismalo set. Although Prismalo is a student-grade pencil, I found this metallic gold to be more opaque and shinier than Faber-Castell’s metallic gold Polychromos.

A fun excuse to use my gold/silver bicolor!

Rachel sketched in a black Stillman & Birn Nova sketchbook turned out to be an unexpected challenge. Her form was easy enough, but leaving her shadow as the negative space and drawing only the light on the standing surface was a brain buster.