Thanks for the suggestion, Laurene and Linda. I will definitely darken the background. Actually this is a male Great Bower Bird which was in the grounds of Cicada Lodge where we stayed near Katherine in the Northern Territory . They are more common in the far north of Australia and unlike most male ...

I thought this bower bird which was busily building its bower and collecting colourful objects to attract a mate would make an interesting subject to draw, but am struggling with it and am wondering what it needs and whether it is worth persevering . I have used panpastel in the background and ...

Thanks for the advice Linda. Will definitely give it a go - got nothing to lose at this stage and if I do mess it up it will have been a useful learning exercise. Really enjoyed your post showing Mike's studio. It certainly makes you appreciate how much effort he puts into these invaluable videos ...

Only just seen this Linda as I must admit I haven't been into the forum for a while! As usual really great advice. This is something that I really do have to work on as I know I have a tendancy to try to put in too much detail.
You say that the pastel can be worked over and over again, so should I ...

Good advice Laurene and yes it is a good idea to source other references - only problem is that this is a tiny little village, not easily accessible and certainly not touristy, hence it is difficult to find many photos of it. Of course it would have been great if I could have done some sketches on ...

Thanks so much for your comments Mike and Laurene and I definitely DON'T want gratuitous praise or sugar coated comments, Mike.
I agree with you, Laurene, that the forum is valuable for alerting us to things that we may not see when we are too close to a subject.
I knew that this would be ...

That's really helpful feed back Mike, and has definitely given me a lot to work on! I haven't attempted a scene like this with pastel pencil before, so felt that I was getting a bit lost.
Thanks
Jean

I have tried to capture this quaint little French village
that we skied to for lunch on a trip to the French Alps in February. I'm not sure that I have captured the textures of stone, wood and snow properly, so would be grateful for any suggestions and any other comments on the drawing as a whole ...

Definitely prefer the 2nd version Linda. For me it has much more action and seems better balanced. Well done on buying Aussie tuna - especialy given Trump's attack on Australian products!!!

Thanks for that Linda. I really value your input!