"Red" grew up at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois and is named for my cat, Redington...and it's color.  The Morton is one of my favorite places to gather subject matter for paintings, both landscape and florals.  This one was done with a technique called Disappearing Purple - I used shades of purple pencils for underpainting in the darkest areas.  The paper, BFK Rives, is a printmaking paper and is a bit "fuzzy." This aided the blurring of the background, but makes it impossible to lift color from the surface.  No erasing!  Pencils used - Polychromo, Luminance and Prismacolor brands.  I pick the pencil by the color and qualities of the mark it makes, not because any one is an overall better pencil.