This was my first attempt at a pinecone. The bottom had such clear lines between the slanted rows of scales (or is the whole piece a bract?), but I couldn’t capture it. I finally drew the dark shadows between the bracts first and then added the scales.
Hi Patricia- you are off to a great start! Conifer cones are so deceiving! They seem like they would be fairly easy to capture, but they can be a real challenge. Now that you have done a wonderful job of creating the structure, the cone needs toning (a range of darks with highlights) on each scale to give each one form. You also have to make sure that you illustrate (through the toning) that there are light and dark sides on the entire cone to establish it’s overall form. As I said – a challenge, but you will get it!
This was my first attempt at a pinecone. The bottom had such clear lines between the slanted rows of scales (or is the whole piece a bract?), but I couldn’t capture it. I finally drew the dark shadows between the bracts first and then added the scales.
Hi Patricia- you are off to a great start! Conifer cones are so deceiving! They seem like they would be fairly easy to capture, but they can be a real challenge. Now that you have done a wonderful job of creating the structure, the cone needs toning (a range of darks with highlights) on each scale to give each one form. You also have to make sure that you illustrate (through the toning) that there are light and dark sides on the entire cone to establish it’s overall form. As I said – a challenge, but you will get it!