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You are getting nice vibrant colors on this sphere, and I like how you are making your highlight nice and shimmery. You could get much darker on the right side of the sphere. Did you start with a grisaille layer first?

I really like the added colors, richard. I think you still need to get darker on that right side of the branch. Remember that you are trying to get 9 values. Right now your branch is mostly midtones. Keep the ideally toned cylinder in your head, and try to erase out some highlight about a 1/4 of the way in from the left. And build up some darker…[Read more]

Really beautiful, bee balm is a lovely plant 🪴

I love how you captured the colours of those petals, Margaret!

Wow! Wonderful flowers but those leaves are just superb!

Thanks! They are such interesting leaves to draw.

Lovely Margaret.That branch is so cool, and you dod a great job of observing and rendering it’s texture and form. Your cherries are adorable. I like how you used size to help show which cherries are in front and which are in back. That worked really well. I might lighten up the highlight on that main cherry a bit to really give it some shine. Nice work.

This is gorgeous, Margaret. The drawing is absolutely beautiful. Compositionally, I may have left a little more paper in that upper left corner, to give that flower a little more space. Also, in general, we try to avoid pointing the viewer to a corner. See how if you follow the line of that stem it takes your eye right to the corner, and then off…[Read more]

Gorgeous colors, and you captured the form of all those flowers so well. Great job. I think what this drawing could use, is some more 3 dimensional form overall. That cluster of flowers as a whole should be toned like a cylinder. That would help it look less flat, and give it some nice 3D form. It’s so hard with something with so many details and…[Read more]

Thanks,Pam. I was experimenting with mostly watercolor as I bought these cold press cards which don’t work well with pencils. But I agree about the flatness. Not sure what will work on this paper. Any suggestions?

Good point – will keep that in mind next drawing.

Hi Margaret, You could try taking a flat brush and gently try to lift out some highlights, especially toward the left. You could add some really dark darks using dry brush in some of those little areas that don’t receive any light. Hope this helps 🙂

Will add some seed pods and seeds as they dry

Ishbel, wow! Those vibrant blues are so beautiful. You drew all of those different views so beautifully. I think this is at the stage where you just need to add some really dark darks in those little area’s that receive the least light to give this nice contrast. Wonderful work, Ishbel.

Thanks Pam. This was a bit overexposed I think but I also lost track of the highlights because I was experimenting with water color! The second version is a bit better maybe.

This is off to a good start Richard! Remember you want to try to have 9 different tones starting with the lightest (color of the paper) to as dark as you can get. I would start by lightening the area around the main highlight and also darkening the darkest area on the right side and bottom. Than you can work on the transition of tones in between…[Read more]

Richard, this is such a great improvement from your first sphere! Take Doug’s advice and it will be even better.

Wow Sheila! I really like how balanced this composition is! I also enjoy the complimentary orange and blue color combination! Beautiful!!!

Yes! I 100% agree with Doug. I also love all the different shapes and textures. It’s fantastic.