This is off to a great start Helene! It’s a beautiful drawing. And you have the right idea about adding your shadow areas in very slowly. It’s looking nice and vibrant, and not dirty at all. Wendy’s “Botanical Botanical Drawing in Color” book has a good explanation for toning lighter-colored subjects on pages 136-137 if you have that book. Basically, you want to get very dark in small select areas, but use less of each dark value and more of each lighter value in your drawing. I think you have already got a nice range of your lighter values in this flower. Now it’s time to add in some of those really dark values in the little corners that don’t receive much light. Once you do that, you can re-assess and see whether you want to add a little more light-mid values to some of your petals that are further away from the light. You can also darken the leaf behind your flower to help to highlight that beautiful light yellow flower. This is looking fantastic, Helene!!
Also, f you push some greens darker on the leaf where it goes behind the flower it will make the paler yellows pop forward. Look for the areas where you can show contrast.
How does one continue highlighting a pale flower without making it too dirty? Thank you !
This is off to a great start Helene! It’s a beautiful drawing. And you have the right idea about adding your shadow areas in very slowly. It’s looking nice and vibrant, and not dirty at all. Wendy’s “Botanical Botanical Drawing in Color” book has a good explanation for toning lighter-colored subjects on pages 136-137 if you have that book. Basically, you want to get very dark in small select areas, but use less of each dark value and more of each lighter value in your drawing. I think you have already got a nice range of your lighter values in this flower. Now it’s time to add in some of those really dark values in the little corners that don’t receive much light. Once you do that, you can re-assess and see whether you want to add a little more light-mid values to some of your petals that are further away from the light. You can also darken the leaf behind your flower to help to highlight that beautiful light yellow flower. This is looking fantastic, Helene!!
Also, f you push some greens darker on the leaf where it goes behind the flower it will make the paler yellows pop forward. Look for the areas where you can show contrast.