You are off to a good start Faye. Some areas need a revisit. With the tone blocks the mid-range blocks are too similar. Some of the blocks that should be light are darker than the darker blocks. You should be able to see that each block is different as they progress from light to dark (or dark to light). Using a B pencil which allows you to get rich dark toning might make it easier to see and create the progression of tones. With the branch toning the main highlight on many of them are too centered. Judging form how the sphere is lit it looks like you are left handed so the highlight should shift over to the right a little. With the light source coming from the right your right side edge should be a 3-4 on the tone scale and the left edge should be the darkest area because it is the furthest from the light source. The toning on both sides will then seamlessly transition lighter as it moves toward the main highlight. The sphere has nice toning. The area to work on is the reflected light. Reflected light is very challenging to capture. Yours goes up a little too far on the side. It also appears as if it is outside of the sphere instead of being on the sphere. Reflected light should not be as light as the main highlight and it is easy to add more toning to it t tone it down. Since you are trying to create a glow effect caused by light bouncing off the surface the subject is sitting on the reflected light should not be a controlled thin line. It should blend into the darker shadow toning above it. If you are using color pencils you can use an ivory pencil on top of the reflected area color to blend the colors and then put some color back on top of the ivory. With graphite it is a matter of how you layer the toning. Keep experimenting and practicing and you will get it!
You are off to a good start Faye. Some areas need a revisit. With the tone blocks the mid-range blocks are too similar. Some of the blocks that should be light are darker than the darker blocks. You should be able to see that each block is different as they progress from light to dark (or dark to light). Using a B pencil which allows you to get rich dark toning might make it easier to see and create the progression of tones. With the branch toning the main highlight on many of them are too centered. Judging form how the sphere is lit it looks like you are left handed so the highlight should shift over to the right a little. With the light source coming from the right your right side edge should be a 3-4 on the tone scale and the left edge should be the darkest area because it is the furthest from the light source. The toning on both sides will then seamlessly transition lighter as it moves toward the main highlight. The sphere has nice toning. The area to work on is the reflected light. Reflected light is very challenging to capture. Yours goes up a little too far on the side. It also appears as if it is outside of the sphere instead of being on the sphere. Reflected light should not be as light as the main highlight and it is easy to add more toning to it t tone it down. Since you are trying to create a glow effect caused by light bouncing off the surface the subject is sitting on the reflected light should not be a controlled thin line. It should blend into the darker shadow toning above it. If you are using color pencils you can use an ivory pencil on top of the reflected area color to blend the colors and then put some color back on top of the ivory. With graphite it is a matter of how you layer the toning. Keep experimenting and practicing and you will get it!
@dougmilne thank you Doug! Let me try again and apply your suggestions with the B pencil