Next to portrait art, my favorite subject is nature, especially garden flowers.  This piece was created from a photo that I took in my own garden after a rainstorm, when the sun first breaks through the clouds and the water droplets hang from the foliage and blooms.  I began this piece as a "filler" - something small to complete between larger and more labor-intensive portraits.  It was an experiment in light and color, the focus of the main subject contrasting with the hazy images in the background.  After I transferred the line drawing to the paper, I began mapping out the darkest areas with Prismacolor Black Grape.  It's a great shade for underpainting in shadows or in areas where you want the color to be the deepest.  It doesn't dull color as a black or grey would.  A red with blue undertones would work as well, but sometimes peeks through.  After that, I work dark to light (usually), mapping out and saving the whites of the paper and the lightest, brightest colors.  Then I blend the lights and darks where they meet, keeping soft edges where the darks and lights meet, especially in the blurry areas.  Three types/brands of pencils are used - Luminance, Prismacolor, and Polychromos.  I select the pencil by the color, consistency and the need to hold a point or not rather than because I perceive one brand as superior to another.  Difference brands act in different ways on different papers (confusing, right?) and different colors in the same brand can have much different (that word again) qualities.  The Icarus painting board that I use is a heated drawing surface that helps soften the pencils, making them more "blendy" and allowing me to intensify color without as many layers.  Colored pencil is a very slow medium and the heat speeds things up just a bit, allowing more time for new pieces or a bit of gardening!