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Oh, I thought it is important to tone the fruit behind darker.

Hi Margaret- with these small fruits, individually some have a range of tones to convey form and some do not. Be careful too with the values. In each set of fruits one is lighter (or darker) than the other. It makes it look like they are two different colored fruits on the same twig. I don’t know if that is what you were trying to achieve. Apply w…[Read more]

Hi Marijke! It is a beautiful drawing and it seems to follow the same principles we do. I would actually darken the right side of the fig to enhance the form more. But back to your drawing – I think it was a good idea to want to try to apply the toning from what you have learned and not copy Penny’s drawing. After drawing for years I could do t…[Read more]

Yes. The reflected light is amazing!

It does make sense. I did use a lot of Ivory. I will keep trying and study other examples. Thank you for your feedback.

Maybe it will be a good training for me to start again and try to copy her?

My goal was not to copy Penny’s very nice drawing,but find my one way with the toning.

I just used the drawing to make an line drawing. After that I put the book away and tried to fill the toning in as I learn on this course. I was not happy with the result .

Hi Doug,
Penny Brown, Botanical Drawing, page 41

Hi Doug, Once again thank you for the feedback and direction. I do own a copy of Wendy’s book, the apple example answers my questions and I will attempt this again. I also found examples of overlaps and ribbons and I’m sure I will find Lesson 34 and 38 helpful as well. Thank you do very much, Denise

Your update looks wonderful Sara! Beautifully drawn and great details from the start and the form is now much improved!

Really nice feather Denise! The addition of a fairly strong highlight (because onion skins are often shiny) on the onion skin would really make it look realistic. However, your colors and patterning look great! Really nice color selection and saturation on all the subjects!

The pattern you started to create on the apple is looking very good. The colors are nice and the positioning of the pattern is correct and is placed just as I would expect it to be!

Hi Denise- I think watching and working thru Lesson 34: drawing a ribbon and especially Lesson 38: advanced ribbon will help you create folds (hills and valleys) and apply the concept to your petal. If you have Wendy’s book, “ The Joy of Botanical Drawing”, check out pages 142-144 which is a visual and written step by step guide to creating cross…[Read more]

Love the composition Ishbel! You don’t see mountain ash on the east coast anymore because of the ash disease. From the image on the post, it is a little hard to read the leaves below the berries. The three leaves in the center that hang down are getting lost. I think they need more definition to separate them from the leaves behind them. D…[Read more]

It definitely now reads as cylinders placed on top of each other, which was the goal. I am glad my sketch helped!

It is looking better Margaret! Look at Sara’s yellow plum and it’s reflected light. When doing a reflected light, it often helps to use an ivory pencil (or yellow ocher, depending on the color of the subject) on top to blend colors in the reflected light area. You can blend the ivory up into the dark toning above it and create the soft, irr…[Read more]

On Lesson 26 I was unsure how to follow the grid on the top of the apple. On Lesson 27 I found the flow of the pattern on the top of the apple a little easier to follow without the grid. On Lesson 28 I found the video difficult to follow, I didn’t understand how to create the wrinkles in the pedal. Is there a better example?