Bob

- Melissa (aka: Honey Bee)

Tony P.

The smoke stack does look a little off to me too, especially on the jpeg, but it is fairly close to the original. The lighting was sort of hairy as there seems to be a lot of reflected light coming from nearby structures. As far as the stack being darker than the rest of the drawing darks, it is and that was a real problem for me as I got into the "pressing to hard to get it black' thing. Since the stack was one of the first things I worked on, I amost quit after getting the 'shiney blacks. But after all that work, I decided to continue on. In the future, I would probably resort to charcoal or carbon for the black; this I am learning about from reading JD's book.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I may go back and refine the things folks point out. Of course, that is why I am posting these things.

Bob

I really did not time it, but it was about two weeks or so.

Bob

I did this one prior to getting your book and wish I had the carbon and charcoal in my arsenel at the time. I did spray a matte fixative on the drawing so I don't know if I can lighten up the areas, but I may try to see what I can do with the charcoal and carbon in the dark areas. If I can eliminate the 'shinys' it would help a lot.

Have been ordering pencils and giving the ones I have a test on some different sample papers. Still have a way to go yet, but after finishing up these charts, I am going to give the samples in you book a workout to get the techniques down.

Bob

If you draw an imaginary line between the base of the stack, through the tender and on to the engine shed entrance you'll see that all your blacks fall above this line. Nothing below this line possesses that strength of black and, personally, I'd expect to find similar blacks within the shadow areas of the wheels.

Introducing blacks down here (effectively strengthening the shadows) might restore the visual balance and prevent the eye from going straight to the stack.

But for all that it's a well considered and executed drawing!

MIKE

www.SibleyFineArt.com
www.Starving-Artists.net

Was about to reply earlier today, but the blankety-blank computer started acting up. First the mouse went out and then after getting a new one, a program supplied with the mouse caused me to spend the whole day figuring out what the trouble was. After deleting the program, all seems to be well...

Anyway, I took a close look at the original and have to agree that some changes have to be made. Since I sprayed the drawing with fixative, I don't know if I can lighten up areas without causeing more problems. But I can darken the main engine tones with the new carbon pencils and will use charcoal in the shadows.

These are the things I am learning from you guys and am so glad to be able to have some expert opinions here.

Thanks

Bob

Quote Introducing blacks down here (effectively strengthening the shadows) might restore the visual balance and prevent the eye from going straight to the stack.

Good idea Mike. This is one thing that people tend to forget. It is all relative. If you think you may have an area to dark in a drawing, try darkening other areas to even out the balance. As a drawing nears completion, I look at the entire image in terms of balance. Sometimes it helps to view it in a mirror or turn the image upside down to get a better sense of the balance for the entire drawing.

To really make things "pop" try not to over use your darkest and lightest values.

Still, I think the smoke stack could use some value changes to make it more cylindrical. If you can't remove any graphite on the stack, try going even darker in the "core of the shadow" area of the smoke stack. By the way, you may have a hard time putting charcoal or carbon over graphite. It is much easier to put graphite over charcoal or carbon.

I really suck at photo shop but I messed around with your drawing a bit to show what I mean about core of the shadow on the stack. I hope you don't mind. Notice in the first one how the stack looks more cylindrical.

J. D.

I will be attempting to alter the drawing soon. I am hoping that the fixative layer will let me add the charcoal and carbon. This works for me in pastels, letting me build up on the under layers.

I am also going to try to lighten up a test area to see what can be done, but have a feeling that it won't work as easy as darkening.

I learned one thing about doing this drawing; darks are hard to do! When I see that leather purse in your book, you make it look easy