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Beautiful image and colors Sarah! One thing to consider is darkening the fruits that are in the background. It emphasizes which are in front, in back, etc and it makes the fruits in front pop visually!

Great composition Sarah! This would make a lovely Holiday card!

Gorgeous colors Sarah! Keep in mind that the main highlight is too centered. It should be over to the left more. I think you could use a little more dark and mid-range tones to enhance the pomegranate’s form. As I mentioned on an other post, the reflected light should not be as white as the Mai highlight. I would add some color to tone it down. A…[Read more]

You have a great collection of wonderful pieces Sarah! I won’t comment on them all as my comments on some of the posts (outlining, vein width, reflected light, etc) could pertain to many of them. They are small things to change if you so desire. I look forward to seeing more of your work. I am in the middle of a big move, so my apologies for my d…[Read more]

Thanks very much for your comments, Pomegranates are so beautiful and I look forward to spending more time drawing and painting them!

Much appreciated.

Oh, good to know! I can see how that would enhance the drawing.

I appreciate your feedback and agree that many of the points you made will pertain to multiple pieces. I just got started with this process, so I uploaded everything I did in the past 2 months all at once. I have learned so much from the book, the course videos, and the ZOOM winter card class. Best wishes to you with your move!

Nice Sarah- you got to practice water drops a lot on this piece! Great colors! I would tone down the shadows a little. They don’t need to be so dark.

Nice colors Sarah! There are spots where I would expect to see more shadows than what I am seeing. Also, be aware that leaf veins taper as they head toward the outer edges. Some of the secondary veins look to be the same width their entire length. Good job!

OK, gotcha!

Thank you for pointing out the issue with the vein width.

Welcome to the ArtFeed Sarah! You have been busy and have a great selection of posts! The color of the lemon is nice and bright and it is not easy to capture. There are a couple of things to consider. Be careful to not have the subject be outlined. You don’t want to see the dark outside edges, especially when they are near the light source. You c…[Read more]

Hi Sarah- as I mentioned on the lemon, be aware of having the subject being outlined. With the reflected light, it should not be as white as the main highlight. Nor should it be a controlled thin line. Since it is a reflection, the shape should be looser in appearance. Not the easiest thing to achieve, but it gets easier with practice. Beautiful…[Read more]

Great color selection and saturation Sarah! With the cast shadow it is darkest at the subject edge, but then it should transition lighter as it moves away from the subject. Be careful not to have the cast shadow be too dark. If it is too dark it competes visually with the main subject. It ‘s purpose is to ground the subject to the page. As the l…[Read more]

Your pears are a great group Sarah! Since you did the cast shadow in this image a little differently, I will say that cast shadows work best when they are a suggestion, rather than too detailed. Their purpose is to ground the subject to the page. If they are too dark or detailed they can distract your eye from the focal point of the image.

Thank you, that answers one of my questions. As a newcomer to this art form, I sometimes wonder when to tone using something like dark sepia, vs, a more similar color like green and gold as you suggested.

Yes, I understand. Many thanks!

Ok, very good.

Very helpful, thanks.

Charming Karye! Composition, colors, toning – it has everything going for it! It lives up to the title!

Hi! This is my first post to the art feed. I would love feedback re: how to draw this peach pit – so challenging! Thanks.

Hi Jenny- welcome to the ArtFeed! The rendering and colors are very good! You want to have the initial sketch lines be as light as possible. It looks like your peach is outlined and especially as the left side is closest to the light source you don’t want to see that dark outside edge. With the pit – there is no variation in the photo in the a…[Read more]

I did this mostly from a photo reference- grown in my Alaska garden this summer. Was struggling with some of the 3D form aspects, particularly on the left side of the bloom. Would love some feedback on how to do that best with light-colored petals, @sam-mcwilliams.

Hi Katie- welcome to the ArtFeed! This is beautifully rendered! Darkening the areas that are in shadow (in the “v” where petals overlap) and especially the sepals and petals on the right side, which is furthest from the light source the image will start to have more contrast and pop! Remember too that the stamen cluster in the center will cast a s…[Read more]

This is beautifully drawn Katie! I expect a pomegranate to be more saturated with color. The toning and reflected light are wonderful!

Great job on the patterning Katie! As I commented on your pomegranate and I notice on some of your other posts, I would work on getting more saturation on your subjects. The drawing and toning is great! Just stronger, more saturated color!

Hi Katie- as with your other pieces, the papaya is beautifully rendered and great color selections. It just needs more color saturation. The great thing with color pencil is that if you think you have gone too far it is usually easy to lift some of the layers of pencil with a kneaded eraser or even take more of it off with an eraser. Be sure as…[Read more]

Wonderful Ishbel! There is great contrast, but you still have nice delicacy on the flower petals!

Wonderful Patricia! I love the composition with the fallen leaves at the bottom of the page! And the glowing quality of the leaves is so beautiful! Bravo!

Thank you for the feedback, Doug. I’ve been doing more watercolor (without pencil) to get better at mixing colors. This one, I think, is both, pencil and watercolor. Still unsure about how to make the highlights blend in well so that they don’t look like a hole in the leaf! The fall colors have been spectacula.

Hi Patricia- with leaves, and especially with colorful leaves the highlight does not have to be white. The highlights can be lighter versions of the more saturated colors you are using for the majority of the leaf. With that in mind, I think the leaf on the bottom right works very well. You can see it does not have, as you say, the hole in the…[Read more]

Beautiful Patricia! I love the illustrative quality of the image! As you put the range of tones on the branch, there should also be a range of tones on the lichen so you are conveying it curves around to the back of the branch.

Nice study page Patricia! Is this bittersweet?

The leaf under the bottom left leaf was darkened as suggested by Doug and I attempted at lightening the top leaf to augment the contrast but I could not do much better. I added the ripe fallen nut for fun. thought of adding more but stopped at that.

The leaves do look better Helene! I really like the addition of the ripened fruit. It has contrast and crispness that makes it stand out. Making the edges of the other subjects crisper and the shadows darker might help the balance of the overall composition.

The flower was done mainly in watercolour and the rest mainly in regular pencil. The flower was done at the Kauai workshop with good coaching – I hesitated to continue with watercolour, not wanting to spoil the drawing. I will continue practicing with small projects. I am enjoying it!

Gorgeous Helene!

Great colors and textures Ishbel! I think you could get darker on the underside of where the skin folds over and also the underside of the stem fold. The stem looks unfinished to me and needs more definition.