Sabine, yes. Draw every lesson if you can, but here is the part that makes it count: do not worry about making it perfect. Worry about noticing. Ask yourself what feels different this time. Is your shading smoother? Are you seeing shapes instead of symbols? That noticing is where the real learning lives.

Ryan and larry already said the good… Read more

wow, that’s absolutely gorgeous… congratulations 🙂

great drawing, well done

Hi Taylor

Your drawing is excellent. This is not an easy exercise and you have compleated it very well. This is one to be proud of.

How many hours did it take to draw this?

@taylorvansteelant it is very beautiful drawing 👍

You did an outstanding job!

lovely! the values and the blending especially

Hi Frenk

Very well done.👌

It came out really nice. Well done.👏🏼

Hey Frenky this turned out really nice. That teapot has such a solid, feel to it, and your values from light to dark are spot on. The grid did its job and you kept the drawing clean and smooth. Great work, keep them coming! 😊

Welcome to the studio Debra! Great to have you here. I love that you took the plunge while on holiday and with just a B pencil and a plastic eraser too. You’ve already got a lovely feel for the iris structure and those lashes are really delicate. The shading around the eyelid has a nice softness to it. You did really well with limited kit.… Read more

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Very nice Geetesh.

I’ll bet you have a lot of hours in this one.

Geetesh, thirty hours is serious time and it absolutely shows in this. What I notice most is that contrast between the quiet graphite face and that bold red cosmos. You let the flower do the talking while the portrait stays soft and observed. Those fine lines and wrinkles have that patient, lived-in quality you only get when you really sit with… Read more

@cheryl don’t know about the bristol vellum paper but I think at some point you reached the right darkness. Not evenly distributed across the paper background. Looks like you were on a hurry. 🤣. More patience and finishing up with tissue. The containers I bought them on Temu or Ali under cosmetics. No cost at all for dozens of them. Otherwise… Read more

Hi Cheryl

Your leaf and water droplets look absolutely beautiful. Your uneven background tends to compete with the leaf and water droplets And actually seem to diminish their impact.

I have recently been practicing making smooth backgrounds and I am happy with my results.

I take a regular kitchen knife and scoop up a little graphite powder on…

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very good like it not up to this yet but will get there soon well done

Hi @cheryl , my two cents: I use very soft brushes, sometimes go softer ( higher B ) then suggested , can be the paper grain also and sometimes I even use Charcoal instead. Maybe this helps you in the right direction. Make some tries I would suggest.

Hi Cheryl

It looks like you might need more graphite powder and then lightly brush it in with a lot of patience.

I have been using graphite sticks made by “Pacific Arc”. They come in various shades H and B and are 1/4”x1/4”x2-1/2” in size. I rub them on sand paper to make a powder, then sprinkle the powder on the background area and lightly…

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Hi Cheryl
Ali has an excellent tutorial section, building soft evenly textured background on the “Blindfolded Woman portrait”.
It starts at 1 hour, 37 min. and 37 sec. into the tutorial. It is about 15 min. long.

I like the idea of having the markings on the masking tape

looking good to me

Cute

@larry this is already a magnificent start. Can’t wait to see it finished. Tomorrow is the big day for me. But very nice work 👍👍

That’s Beautiful I Like it.