From photo to artwork - A sharing thread.

I'm calling this a sharing thread because I am going to share a piece of artwork, but I am going to also share my progress as I work on the drawing. I am starting with a photo that I have had kicking around my hard drive since last summer. My intent here is not to produce a photo realistic piece but rather a piece of art work based on the photo.

I have begun by working on the background I have picked colours from the photo and have layered shapes and transparencies and I have used the enhance> blur live effect and a bit of diffuse. My hope is that this will give the finished drawing a bit of depth.

I welcome any critiques and or comments as the drawing progresses. Here is the photo and what I have so far. I hope you will join in and share your thoughts, tips, etc and by the end maybe we will have all learned from each other!

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My initial reaction was that the drawing looks flat.
In the original, the dark and light parts look darker and lighter - if that makes sense?!

But, it all may look OK when the rest is drawn and we have object in the foreground which are more in focus.

Just my observation.

Looking good Frances, hope to see a bit more as you go along, I like the shadow tip from the zone you appear to have used, very effective :D

Stygg

For me at least I thing it's too early in the drawing process to give any meaningful feedback. At this point I have to agree with Rik. What you do now may have to change later on in the process to make everything work together.

Thanks Rik, Larry and Stygg for your comments I am hoping to have the next update for tomorrow, I have been a little busy but if all goes well I should have a little time to draw soon. My next step is going to be to begin to draw the blooms by tracing some shapes from the photo and drawing some.

Here is an unopened bud I am working on I will have a few buds of various sizes at the bottom of the raceme or cluster of flowers, as the raceme is drooping downwards

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