Peta, wow. These are great. Your toning is really wonderful, and you have nailed getting 3D form on these spheres. Your handling of that highlight is just gorgeous. I really love how you are keeping those cast shadows quiet, and the way you are getting really dark where the sphere meets the paper, and then fading out to nothing. I might consider adjusting the shape of that cast shadow just a bit. If you observe a cast shadow of a sphere when lit from the upper left, you will notice that it gets a little wider/longer as travels from the bottom toward the upper right (kind of an egg shape tilted clockwise, if that makes any sense). So, on these, I would just add a little bit of very light toning to the upper right side of these cast shadows. This is pretty advanced, and something that I still struggle with getting right, but the reflected highlight should transition into that core shadow a little more smoothly, could be a little bit larger, and darker. You want it to be around midtone-ish in value. But again, it’s tricky and just something to think about at you progress. You are doing great.
Aha… that’s really helpful about both the cast shadow (which I wasn’t completely happy with) and the transition between the reflected highlight and core shadow. I’ll practice that on the next one because I’m too scared to touch these again. 🙂 Thanks so much for your help.
Peta, wow. These are great. Your toning is really wonderful, and you have nailed getting 3D form on these spheres. Your handling of that highlight is just gorgeous. I really love how you are keeping those cast shadows quiet, and the way you are getting really dark where the sphere meets the paper, and then fading out to nothing. I might consider adjusting the shape of that cast shadow just a bit. If you observe a cast shadow of a sphere when lit from the upper left, you will notice that it gets a little wider/longer as travels from the bottom toward the upper right (kind of an egg shape tilted clockwise, if that makes any sense). So, on these, I would just add a little bit of very light toning to the upper right side of these cast shadows. This is pretty advanced, and something that I still struggle with getting right, but the reflected highlight should transition into that core shadow a little more smoothly, could be a little bit larger, and darker. You want it to be around midtone-ish in value. But again, it’s tricky and just something to think about at you progress. You are doing great.
Aha… that’s really helpful about both the cast shadow (which I wasn’t completely happy with) and the transition between the reflected highlight and core shadow. I’ll practice that on the next one because I’m too scared to touch these again. 🙂 Thanks so much for your help.
Yes. Peta. yes. 🙂