Kaylon at Ole Miss in colored pencil

[Rebecca Willoughby]

I'm stuck. I can not decide where to go next. Whether or not to add a background, complete the bricks or add a touch of color (my husband's suggestion!). I have played around in Photoshop to no avail. The piece is 15" x 21" and is prisma pencil on toned paper. The face is perfect. I ran out a transparency sheet and laid it on top to check it. She makes that expression all of the time. A slight tilt of the chin downward and a "I don't feel like posing" attitude.

Help!

Rebecca

[Rebecca Willoughby]

Reference Photo

My husband thinks it is a shame not to emphasize those ice blue eyes. As her mother I can assure you they are gorgeous!

[Renee Price]

Rebecca,

Well done on a darling little girl! I don't think you need to add color to this drawing because her eyes shine the way they are. Think about adding the tree. Even though it changes the triangle compostition, it will add a layer of darkness and I like the way it frames her. You may want to soften the edges between your daughter and the wall/background so she will look like "part" of the scene and not cut and pasted.

Excellent drawing!

Good luck,
Renee Price

[Rebecca Willoughby]

Thanks, Renee. It always help to have another "artistic" opinion. Not that I don't trust my husband's. Here is a detail of her face.

Rebecca Willoughby

[Mike McCarty]

You might try a simple cracked stucco wall effect in one or three scattered spots behind her just to give her some backing. You could even show a brick or two through the cracked stucco. Just an idea. I like keeping it simple and focused on the girl. I does sort of beg for some sort of reference behind her. Great drawing.

[Lon Haverly]

Nice careful work Rebecca.

Maybe, a bit too careful. You could afford to have a little more fun with your pencil so that your lines would show up a bit. It seems a bit stiff, or rigid. Look at the legs and the bench. They are just a bit woody, or flat.

Sometime you should just let your hands cut loose and make some lines without worrying too much about them. You have a lot of ability. You just need to relax and let your lines come out with a little flamboyance.

It is a matter of style, I guess. A drawing can afford to have a little texture and lines. If you work the lines away, it is like overcooking the soup. You lose the individual flavors.

[Rochelle Brown]

Maybe seeing the piece with some foliage in the background will take away the overcooked soup idea. Personally, I enjoy seeing great care and detail in a work of art.

[Tom Martinez]

No, Rochelle, you seem to have missed the point of everyone's comments. In essence, you have done an excellent job in copying a photograph (a two-dimensional picture). In doing a drawing, the artist is attempting to perform the task of making the two-dimensional object to look three-dimensional. It is your edges and values in the drawing that do this. When two surfaces appear to overlap each other, they form an edge. Based on the values of those surfaces, the edge will appear to be hard, soft or non-existent. When the values and tones of the surfaces are the same, the edge blends in with them.

So, the drawing is near perfect as far as producing a copy. However, if you wish to give it some volume, you will have to make some of the edges darker, lighter or even disappear where the values call for it. You can add some background. I would suggest just a hint by doing a light outline of something in the background. I wouldn't overdo it.

[Tom Martinez]

This is a rough of what my comment mean. I hope that it helps.

[Rochelle Brown]

Well, Mr. Martinez, If I've photocopied a paragraph I really wasn't aware of that, I thought my paragraph was original.

Additionally, it seems that you have taken the liberty to go over someone else's work with, what is to me, a rough hand. I still prefer to look at the first presentation and wait anxiously to see what this capable artist will come up with.

Thank you for your effort, I'm sure you mean well.