Adding the dark toning to the leaves helped promote the flower Liz. Even though I see different colors on the flower petals it has a monotone appearance to me. I would play up some of the darks, but what I think it needs most of all is to enhance some of the highlights (make them more noticeable).
30 September 2021
Liz, take a look at the current dark areas on the flower. Now, if you were to segment those dark areas up just once more, so that there is one more level of dark tones at the very dark edges, I think you’ll really enhance the 3-d appearance of this flower. I recommend getting a piece of tracing paper and your Dark Sepia or Dark Indigo colored pencil and see if you can take parts of those dark purple areas a little further in places with that Dark Sepia or Dark Indigo. If you like the way it looks after you experiment on tracing paper, then I say accentuate those darks just a little more on the real drawing! 🙂 (Currently those darkest areas you have are still around a #7 or #8 tone. To really feel the full spectrum of tones, you’ll want some #9 darks with a pencil that’s a bit darker. No matter how hard you press with that purple pencil, it’s not going to get you to #9.) Awesome job on the reproductive parts here, by the way! They are beautifully bright and create a compelling focal point.
Added watercolor and more colored pencil.
Adding the dark toning to the leaves helped promote the flower Liz. Even though I see different colors on the flower petals it has a monotone appearance to me. I would play up some of the darks, but what I think it needs most of all is to enhance some of the highlights (make them more noticeable).
Liz, take a look at the current dark areas on the flower. Now, if you were to segment those dark areas up just once more, so that there is one more level of dark tones at the very dark edges, I think you’ll really enhance the 3-d appearance of this flower. I recommend getting a piece of tracing paper and your Dark Sepia or Dark Indigo colored pencil and see if you can take parts of those dark purple areas a little further in places with that Dark Sepia or Dark Indigo. If you like the way it looks after you experiment on tracing paper, then I say accentuate those darks just a little more on the real drawing! 🙂 (Currently those darkest areas you have are still around a #7 or #8 tone. To really feel the full spectrum of tones, you’ll want some #9 darks with a pencil that’s a bit darker. No matter how hard you press with that purple pencil, it’s not going to get you to #9.) Awesome job on the reproductive parts here, by the way! They are beautifully bright and create a compelling focal point.