Hi Ishbel- Great colors! I am used to your light source coming from the left so this threw me a bit! I think you could add more dark toning on the underside of the bottom petal. It took me a while to figure what was going on with the petal in the middle that points to the left. I guess the whitish detail on the top of the petal is a textural detail? It looks like a curl on the petal, but that did not make sense.
Hi Doug…I found this in someone’s garden when I was in Mexico so couldn’t really snip it! It was in the middle of a lot of other growth so the light source was/is a bit murky
Thanks for sending the photo Ishbel! I see now that the white on top of the petal on the left is a highlight. It looks like in the picture that the highlight does not go all the way across the petal. You can also see some veining lines come up on the right side and go up and over to the end on the left. I think adding those lines (which would break up the highlight) and maybe tone down the highlights in a couple of places that petal would read better. Hope you had a good trip to Mexico!
This is such a lovely flower, Ishbel. I think there are just a few tweeks that could help make the structure a little clearer. There’s that petal on the left that is curling over another petal. I think that if you darken the edge of that underneath petal, it might make it more obvious what’s going on in that area, structurally. Same with the petals just to right of that left-curling petal. The edges of those petal to the right of the curling petal, are about the same value as the edge of the curling petal. I think if you darkens those edges bit so that the edges are darker than the edges of the curling petal, it might help with the structure a bit too. And then you might try to push that right-side light source a bit more, by darkening the whole left side a bit more, except where that curling petal is facing that right side light – I would left that light there. I did a little playing around in photoshop, and am adding the photo to this comment to try to show you what I mean.
Thanks for your comments. I’ll work on it a bit and fix the problem with the left pointing petal because I see now that it should fit in BEHIND the petal in the back.
Hi Ishbel- Great colors! I am used to your light source coming from the left so this threw me a bit! I think you could add more dark toning on the underside of the bottom petal. It took me a while to figure what was going on with the petal in the middle that points to the left. I guess the whitish detail on the top of the petal is a textural detail? It looks like a curl on the petal, but that did not make sense.
I later saw the flower open and so plan to draw that next. Spectacular plant.
Thanks for sending the photo Ishbel! I see now that the white on top of the petal on the left is a highlight. It looks like in the picture that the highlight does not go all the way across the petal. You can also see some veining lines come up on the right side and go up and over to the end on the left. I think adding those lines (which would break up the highlight) and maybe tone down the highlights in a couple of places that petal would read better. Hope you had a good trip to Mexico!