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Not quite understanding where the cast shadow and reflected light should be on this pear🤦‍♀️

Hi Cathie, First of all the changes you have made are heading in the right direction. That sit down shadow is really working. Good job! As for the cast shadow and reflective light. If you have Wendy’s The Joy of Botanical Drawing, check out pages 43-45. She has great instruction on these aspects! In general, think about the light source. How is t…[Read more]

Toad Orchid Study- I can’t figure out how to draw petals that are straight vertical towards me- they always look chopped off instead of sticking up towards me. Any suggestions??

Hi Cassandra, I know the problem. Your brain just doesn’t want to see them so crunched. Extra careful measurement and making use of the highlight and shadow aspects helps.

Great page Cassandra! The squirrels are out in droves stocking up for the winter. I wonder if they know something we don’t know about this winter! They frustrate our dogs to no end!

Thanks Doug- my dogs are the same way!! Fun to see their clues left behind 🙂 thanks for the feedback, I LOVE your work- so inspirational!

Hi Cathie- Comparing the 2 versions side by side I see that the flower looks crisper now. It might be the quality of the new image, but when I compare your earlier version and this one it appears that the whole flower is darker and it has lost some of the dark toning around the stamens. I would try to work on that area again to retrieve that…[Read more]

Hi Cathie, I really like the rich color you get on this. Good job! What it needs now is some more darks. As it is, it looks a bit flat. Look for that core shadow. Create it by adding a bit of dark sepia. And lighten the left edge a bit to show the reflective light. This will really make it look spherical. Also, darken to create a small grounding…[Read more]

Hi Cathie- the stem and the bud are really looking great!!! I love how crisp they are.! The flower in contrast looks fuzzy. I think adding some highlights and other darker tones would help. Especially consider adding tones to the areas where the petals overlap and the ruffled edges.

Hi Liz- the rose hips are beautifully rendered. There are a couple of areas I would revisit. There are some sepals that are in the back, but they are lighter than the sepals in the front. I would add more dark toning to the hips to emphasize their form. Lastly, the highlight’s location is throwing me off. It should be located to the left a l…[Read more]

Yes that meakes sense, although I think in reality the sepals were lighter, but to emphasize them I will make them darker. sometimes we have to draw what we know not what we see. Same with the reflections. Thanks for your comments.

So lovely!

Nice page Liz!!! The composition is really good! Kudos to your lettering too!

Thanks Doug appreciate the comment!!!