A girl and her pencils .... Bee on Lavender the comparison! Or not!

Good morning. Happy Tuesday. I am late because I have been taking comparison photos and wondering whether to show you the results or not! I am not sure that there is much to see. I was hoping to see more progress. The picture on the left of the screen was completed eight months ago (I thought it was longer than that, but there was a date on the picture) and as I have said was the first picture that I was really happy with. The first picture was worked on mat (or mount) board and is actually waaaay smaller than the second picture, which is worked on Stonehenge. I use oms to blend now, I didn't when I drew the first picture. So to some extent the comparison is not really a true one!
Both pictures are straight from the camera, no editing other than cropping. What I can see is that there is more vibrancy to the newer picture. The lavender buds are fluffier and softer in the newer picture and I think too that the bee is fuzzier and softer. I was also able to correct a thing that had niggled me about this picture ever since I finished it. That goes back to something I have talked about a lot - knowing when - and when not - to copy a photo exactly. I copied it exactly in the first picture. And the bees leg on the left of the first picture is partly hidden by a lavender flower. Every time I look at that picture my focus falls on that leg and my head asks, 'what is that?' ..... And I KNOW what it is. It looks wrong and it looks weird. I left it out of the second picture, and even though it SHOULD be there I think that your brain readily believes it to be hidden behind the flowers and it no longer takes your focus from where you want it to be. I have also left out a strange line on the right side of the bee, for a similar reason. I have no idea what it is. It is in the reference photo, but it makes no real sense.
There are certainly many more layers of color in the newer picture. Working on paper with a tooth instead of smooth board allows for that.
So my conclusion is, that, yes, I like the second picture better. Have I made much progress? I am not sure. Although eight months is not a huge time to judge over.

Do feel free to give me your opinion. Prints and all kinds of lovely things are available to buy in my shop, the link is below. I am not sure I will be doing anymore comparison pictures, but I do want to talk about comparisons and I think I will save that for my next blog. In the meantime, I have a new project underway which I am really excited about. I am working from a beautiful reference photo that a lovely Instagram user peatonford has kindly allowed me to use. I hope you all have fun and exciting art projects on the go. Happy drawing everyone!

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