Drawing, colored pencil still-life

Choosing to do a drawing for a Christmas gift 

I began by buying an unusual little vase, about 9 inches high, 

from the Glen Echo Potters 

when they had their holiday sale at the Lab School.

 I took several photos trying to decide on a small grouping

 It shouldn't be but it is always surprising, 

for me to see how much colors change 

with different backgrounds. 

I wanted to work from life and I knew I would not have constant light

 during the day and probably not at night, as well. 

 I decided to use the darker background and a white base 

so there would be some reflected white on the objects

 I was using a high texture heavy substrate so a lot of white

 came through even though I kept my pencils very sharp.

 It is quite evident, here, with the texture of the paper showing through.

 Even after using some blending much of the papers texture was evident.

 I didn't want to fill the background with dark gray so just gave a hint of that color.

The title is Red, Yellow, and Blue.

 Since I was unhappy with the substrate's texture

in that first drawing, 

I decide to try the same still life on a smoother surface. 

Using Bristol Board this time, thinking it was a lot smoother, 

I began drawing. 

Soon I saw that it, too had a texture that I didn't want for my colored pencils. 

At this point I decided I liked the first drawing better 

so gave it as the gift along with the vase.

During the second drawing,

I had to switch apples as the first one had become

 soft over the week or two I was drawing. 

For all, but the apples I used Prismacolor pencils.  

I used Polychromos only on both apples and today used

mineral oil to blend the pencil lines on this apple.

 I still see so much of the paper's texture in the rest of the drawing. 

This image appears brighter in this photo than it really is. 

Now I want to go back to my favorite drawing paper

and try another still life.