First, I used my new col-erase photo blue to sketch in the essential shape of the pumpkin. I really like it. With the new sharpener, I was able to get a nice fine point that I could use to create a visible, but easily covered line.
Second, I found that the layers of colour went on even nicer with the long sharp point on the Prismacolor pencils. So far, knock on wood, no breakage on the pencils either. The sharpener puts a really fine point and it holds up really well.
There is still a ton to do with this picture, including the foreground and background. The foreground is a somewhat reflective table, the background has tree branches and is nicely out of focus. I'm actually considering doing the background with watercolour pencils and/or crayons because it's very out of focus and that may make it easier to blur. It should be fine to do, the paper I'm using is Fluid 140lb hot press watercolour and it's been working pretty good.
Final thought, I think I'm finally getting a better handle on layering and blending with coloured pencil. Still lots to practice, but I felt that the colour was more vibrant and blended better this time. I had a lot more layers and the layers went on quite easily.