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You mean use blues and greens for the shadows at the top edge of the petal?

Thank you so much Doug.

Hi Doug, thank you for the feedback. I made the changes you recommended and you’re right, it looks much better with just a few tweaks!

Gorgeous Dora!!! That flower is so crisp and beautiful!!! I feel like I can pick it up off the page! Everything is really good!

Hi Clotilde- I would lighten the cast shadows a little. It looks like grey tones on the petal are done in watercolor and I would lighten them a little too. White flowers are tricky. Depending on the flower you can use blues or greens to do the toning and the petals keep their lightness.

Beautiful, rich colors and saturation! The branch and leaves are so good!!! That little bump out on the bottom of the middle fruit and the shape of the fruit on the right are throwing me off a little. Maybe you could erase the bump and round off the other fruit. It should be easy to do since a lot of it is hidden by the leaves. Wonderful job!!!!

Great job Clotilde! The curls are really well done! Not easy to do with a dark colored subject and this is very successful!

Nice job Clotilde! Along with the highlight placements and rich, dark center well and overlaps you can easily understand the flower as a whole and all it’s individual petals. I would go in with a color pencil and smooth out some of the transitions from the darkest areas – especially at the overlaps.

Hi Julie- the bright highlight really conveys the cherry’s shiny surface! Be careful not to have an outline. The left side edge probably would not be that dark because it is close to the light source.

Hi Julie- I love how the cherries are nestled into the leaves! The cherry on the left could use a little more darker tones like the one on the right. Even if you don’t add more color to the leaves there are areas that should have more dark toning. For example: the leaf on the left would cast a shadow on the leaf on the right. Also the left c…[Read more]

Yeah! Watercolor works so well with colored pencils! Especially in the light colors like yellow! You will find the highlight areas so much easier to control. BTW, this is a lovely drawing, (with or without watercolor)!

Hi Qoo, Nice drawing. I like the feeling of the fold and that you are defining the veins by the dark value between them. Be careful to taper the veins as they move toward the margin of the leaf. Observe them from origin to end point. One other comment I have is that it seems you are drawing on a rough surfaced paper. With botanical art a fairly…[Read more]

Hi Maureen, So beautiful! I’m a big fan of your soft, almost dreamlike style. And this drawing has such lovely colors. That warm red on the underside of the flowers is such an unexpected choice. It really makes the drawing. I’d like to see a bit of a warm reddish hue in the butterfly. I’d also like to see the stems of the flowers more defined. T…[Read more]

Hi Marina, this is such a pretty drawing. The colors you have chosen work together so well. For some reason the drawing seems grainy. Were you using a rough surfaced paper? I like seeing you try embossing. It is a challenging technique! Keep working on finessing the lines. They are a bit too uniform. Also try adding some shadow next to the…[Read more]

Hi Theodora, Lovely drawing! Your colors are so vivid. And I like the way you are using the natural linear patterns on the leaves and petals to define the forms.

Hi Mary Jo, I love things in threes! Bounty of the harvest? Nice work on the spherical shapes. That blueberry is “precious!” I also like your bringing the red color into the green of your leaves. Maybe a bit much on this one. The red is becoming too dominant and is greying out the greens, I’d add some indigo in the darker areas and erase away…[Read more]

I know watercolor would take this to the next level so I finally ordered my watercolor pencils!

Lovely Dora!