Kathryn finished
 

This is the finish? of a piece I had in 'works in progress'. The final size is 10"x19" on fawn colored Stonehenge. I want to thank those who replied to it, especially Rob for his helpful criticism and Sharon for her always good advice.

Jimmie,
It is stunning as usual. Generally how much time does it take for you to do something like this?

Beautiful Jimmie! I really like how you handled the light on her face and all that wispy hair.

I can feel the hair tickle her neck. I love the mouth, held slightly open and the pose. The hairline all around her face, is amazing. Breathtaking, Jimmie!!!

Thank you both, and Pat who jumped in there.

This piece took me much longer than usual. Not including fixing her arm twice and erasing the almost two hours spent on her shirt, I still did way more shading than other drawings. I'm guesstimating this one took about 30 hours (without fixing), compared to 15 to 20 hours I normally take. I don't plan on putting this much work, meaning the extra shading in the arms, in my drawings for a while. I can sometimes determine how far I'm going to take a drawing before I start.

Thanks again.

Awesome!
 

Great tonal range; very life-like. Every piece gets better, Jimmie.

Way to tough this one out! Have a beer, my friend. :thumbsup: It looks wonderful. Put it in the book.

You shouldn't just be commended for the great job, but also for your willingness to hear out others' critiques. Your openness helped complete this work of art. All you needed was a fresh pair of eyes. At some time or another, we all need that. And that is, of course, what this forum is for.

I'm kind of curious as to why the closeup posted more contrasty and cooler than the pic of the whole piece. Which is most like the original? If I knew what "Fawn" looked like, I guess I'd know, but I don't.

Your daughter did a great job on the beauty marks, by the way! :)

Jimmie,

It turned out very nice, I think you captured her expression really well. I'm starting to realize just how difficult it is to capture an expression in paint and keep it fresh - you seem to never lose that freshness- and I know it's not easy because as we know, with the flick of the pencil - it could be gone.


Your variations in value just keep on getting better - I heard one time that it is possible to create over 100 values with a pencil??


Congratulations again,

Denise

Thanks all,

Richard, now you've scared me because I don't want a life-like look to my work. :bewildere When I did airbrushing, people thought I was touching up photos and adding digital backgrounds which should have been a hidden compliment, but always bothered me. My next one will be getting very little shading, so it'll be a good contrast.

Thanks Rob, I'll have a glass of milk with crushed ice instead, as I don't drink alcohol.

I just have a problem getting an accurate pic from my digital, so they all end up looking different. The closest thing I can compare 'fawn' to is the color of the area to the left that has our info next to the post. It has two shades per sheet, one side more saturated than the other.

I've never heard of that myself, but I guess it could be. In this piece, I went over areas with the same pencil about a dozen times.

Thanks again.

Jim,

I just want to take this opportunity to let you know that you are a tremendous inspiration to pencil artists like me.

Thank you so much!

Carlos