new beginnings

[moseling]

Hi Mike, I decided to post my attempts at the exercises from the video tutrorials that I have done so far, for any feedback. The grass beneath the trees in the eraser exercise is especially bad, but I just keep telling myself that I won't get any better if I don't try.

[PogArt-Ttoo]

Hi, I do like your drawings very much.
I'm enjoying especially the nicely textured tree trunks, and the leaves of the flower...
Nicely rendered light, shadows...
Well done my friend.

[moseling]

Thank you for your encouraging words

[Laurene]

Hi and welcome! I definitely get a sense of depth and recession in your drawing,. Well done!

[Mike Sibley]

I decided to post my attempts at the exercises from the video tutorials that I have done so far, for any feedback.

Good idea, and I'm always happy to help you with that.

ERASER EXERCISE

The grass beneath the trees in the eraser exercise is especially bad, but I just keep telling myself that I won't get any better if I don't try.

First, that's true... the part about practice, not the "bad" reference I think you might be referring to the way you drew the grass, not the appearance? Well, negatively drawing grass and drawing hair use the same technique - and I'm about 40 years ahead of you But, that said, you're definitely heading in the right direction.

No doubt you'd rather I concentrated on the erasing but let's get the grass sorted out first. Possibly, you're still having to think about how to draw it, where I no longer have to think about that and can just draw what I see in my mind. That will come with time and practice. But, in the meantime, concentrate on keeping your drawing sharp. To create depth and recession, the edges have to be sharp. Soft edges suggest adjacent elements are connected, so you lose depth.

As for the erasing: I think that's worked out quite well for you. My only reservations are with the background tree, that still contains midground values on the shady side. And the same applies to that dark band through the grass between the midground and background tree. I know those trees aren't really all that far apart, but don't be afraid to exaggerate. If bending the truth helps to clarify your story, bend it

As I'm rather fond of saying: this is your world you're creating. It should reflect the laws of Nature, but ultimately your rules apply to a greater extent.

But you do need to be consistent. In this case, you've created progressively lighter trees... but your grass doesn't conform to the same recession. Hence, my mention of that over-dark band - it's situated between the midground and background trees, but its dark values suggest it is much nearer to us.

BLENDED LILY EXERCISE
I'm really disappointed... there's nothing for me to criticise

This is superb! Seriously superb! All your shading sweeps smoothly into the subtly highlights. The line content that remains after blending perfectly translates into surface texture - and all your shading correctly follows the contours and direction of growth. You've used highlighted edges very intelligently to enhance them, where enhancement was needed. And dark edges, representing the thickness of the petals, where that was appropriate too.

The same applies to edges of the stamens. And your dark, sharp-edged drawing within the anthers has lifted them up and way from the soft petal behind.

Lovely work!

[LindasPencils]

Totes agree with Mike re the Lily - fabulous!
And the trees are a great experiment and the lessons learned there will carry over to your next drawing.