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This is beautiful illustration Hendrika! I would expect to see this in a magazine or book. For illustrative purposes it is amazing! If it is to be a finished botanical drawing I am missing some toning. Little things like where the dandelion stems cross and there is no shadow that one would expect there. More complicated would be the Mahonia buds,…[Read more]

Thank you for your comments. Yes, I agree too re the toning. I took shortcuts and didn’t follow the guidelines I learned in the course, as I wanted to draw quickly – and I used pen to outline – but I posted because I was pleased with the end result.

The actual leaf already faded a bit. This time I used a sepia color. Brand new from the shop 😉

Hi Liesbeth- this is a beautiful drawing. Be aware that your light source is not positioned correctly. I can see in the photograph that the light is coming from behind the leaf instead of coming over your left shoulder at a 45 degree angle, which is the universal standard for botanical artwork. When you correct the light source you will see that…[Read more]

thank you. Yes, indeed, this was a strawberry leaf. I think it’s to early for berries 🙂 I was sitting outside in the sun, so indeed, the light source shifted a bit during the day. I find it difficult to keep the balance between rich color, light shading and keeping it fresh. I’ll keep on practising. Thank you for the feedback!

Yikes, stem problems! Erasing so much, I’ve eaten into the paper. Any way to save the stem?

Hi Sheila- I couldn’t see anything until I really enlarged the image. It looks like it is to the left of the stem above the fruit. It is tricky because the plum is positioned so high on the page. I thought of putting a leaf behind the fruit if you can get a leaf to work from at some point. It can be easier to camouflage a mishap on a leaf. Or if y…[Read more]

Thanks Vern and Doug, really helpful feedback. Definitely taking out the extra highlight, there are windows all around me. Branches and leaves, probably not available this year… but we’ve got yellow plums, too.

Still working on this. The beans are really a pale green but, chunky!

Hi Sheila- the pod section on the right looks great! It holds its own with all the other parts now. Beautiful!

Doug, I’ve darkened the full bean and the two pod sections. Maybe more toning on the bean in the far right pod? Hope you’re all well!

Sheila you always pick the most common subjects and exalt them to a high place! This is absolutely wonderful ! I just love the creative composition! So well done!