Two mantis in graphite

Hi fellow artists !

Here’s my latest attempt of a drawing from a photo. I’d love to hear some thoughts on how to make it look better ! :slight_smile: ! I feel like by spending more time on it I’m only gonna make it look worse…

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“And bowing respectfully, the grasshoppers meet…”
It’s beautiful, and with the space you’ve left at the top, it looks like it could be a book cover with room for a title! :clap: :smile:

They look good, only thing I’d suggest is to push the contrast more, get the darks darker. The mantis on the right is all the same tone, and I know it’s hard to figure out color to shading in graphite, maybe switch to grayscale in a photo editing program and run automatic white balance then to see how it decides shade should be?

Still a great work the way it is, but I’m trying to be like Matt with the “Darkest darks and lightest lights and everything in between” line. :slight_smile:

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Thanks to both of you for the feedback !
Yes, it’s a bit flat (even more on the photo), I tried to accentuate the darkest parts but the problem is the “in between” part :sweat_smile:

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I think if you just make some lines a little bolder on the right mantis it’d help a lot, like on the pincers of the one on the left, the lower bit of it being a darker line due to shadow apparently from above. Could also make bottom of branch a bit darker. I’d try all those out in software editing program to see how it turns out before changing the work you’ve already done, even a mono zero eraser takes too much off when you go a bit past what was intended. Leave the in betweeens, just add some darks here and there where there is already some shadow, just boost it a little bit.