Tomatoes in colored pencil

This is my first attempt to drawing from real life subject. My husband said I better hurry because he wanted to eat one of my props! :smiley:
Of course, it is full of room to improve. If you have any suggestions, I’m open to all.

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I think you did a great job with this. I particularly like the way you rendered the stem. If I had a suggestion to make it would be to add a cast shadow - I think it would improve the 3d feel of your drawing.
Thanks for sharing.
Patricia.

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Hi Marie, this is a fabulous work! I admire your sincere attitude towards the subject. They are VERY tomatoes. I totally agree with Patricia about the cast shadows. Once you add the cast shadows, it will become something like this:

Considering your current composition of this piece, I placed the cast shadows towards the bottom right hand corner.
Hope this helps you imagine how the outcome will be when you add cast shadows to your work :cat: :smiley: :tumbler_glass:

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Very well done. Love it.

Thank you Patricia, for your positive feedback! Oh! Of course that’s certainly what’s missing in my picture! I seem to always forget those cast shadows!! It shows I’m a novice. I recently «finished » a flower in watercolor and looked at it, after seeing your comment and sure enough, no cast shadow! :upside_down_face:
What I didn’t include was that my actual tomatoes were hanging from a banana hook. So, that’s my “excuse” for this one. :blush:
That doesn’t mean it was a good idea, to draw them hanging in air :smile:

So, I’m off to apply what you so kindly suggested! I am certain it will be a great improvement!

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Hi Maki,

Thanks so much for your compliment! You and Patricia have certainly provided a good dose of encouragement and learning occasion for me. I am glad I had the guts to show them up here. Thank you also, for the time you took to actually show me what I can do to improve my work.

I will use your pic as a guide to give those tomatoes somewhere to sit! :grin:
Thanks again! You have helped motivate me!

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Hi Denise,
Thank you so much for your words of approval! I appreciate it and it makes me want to do more!

I am a novice as well… Matt’s weekly critiques do help us identify areas for improvement. I think that once you have touched up that drawing you should submit it (or the watercolor) for Matt’s critique. :wink:

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Hi Marie, glad to know that my feedback is of some help for you.
Well, if you’re interested, I suggest you go one more step further with this piece, that is, adding some story-telling nature to this artwork.
In your reply to Patricia, you gave us some background information of your subject, i.e. the tomatoes are hanging from a banana hook.
Then I would plan something like this as my drawing using the situation as the subject:

It doesn’t matter there is no cat, a bird, or a dropping tomato in the actual scene you are now looking at. I use my imagination to set up a scene, a scenario where something is happening. Then I collect reference images of a sleeping cat and flying bird, and maybe some background to show where it is, like window side, patio and so on.
Then I digitally cut and paste these collected references to compile an image of completed piece. This becomes my final reference before I start drawing.

What is particularly interesting about this approach is that the choice of your scenario setting clearly shows what kind of person you are. With my own repeated attempts at many different drawings so far, I have come to aware that I tend to draw something funny, maybe “humorous” I should say. So, looking at the hanging tomatoes, I come up with this somewhat funny story; will the bird be in time to catch the dropping tomato to save the lazy sleeping kitty!? So, once you try this approach when working on new works, you will gradually see your personality coming up from a series of your drawings and come to know yourself better.

For your reference, Matt once mentioned the significance of incorporating some story-telling nature into your drawings in one of his critiques of my works, at around 13:05 :smiley: :+1: :cat:

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I think that is a super interesting approach. As a beginner I’ve just been copying things I see in nature or rural settings and not thinking overtly about the story — well except for an old feed mill building I just finished, whose time had come and gone. But also I’ve been reading that potential buyers of art might be interested in the story as well. This may be a little different than the story though as you are imagining it.

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