Hi all,

I'd mentioned in my greet I was going to be doing some Gerberas as a still life for a friend - I just finished it and took a quick scan before I mounted and framed it - unfortunately it wouldn't quite fit in the scanner, but you get the gist - I just uploaded it to my gallery page.

Took 15 hours over 3 days, not counting some preliminary sketches. Decided in the end to do the piece in chalk pastels as I've been wanting to do some more in this medium. Original is approx 18"x12".

Hope y'all like it! - Comments appreciated - I'm still experimentinig in this medium so any pointers to how to do any areas better would be reatly appreciated. Now I gotta go and wash my hands (and keyboard!) - I look like I've just done a few hours down t'pit....

Cheers,

Andy

Extremely nice and way out of my league, so critique is not something I'm capable of giving. I can say that, as an observer, rather than an artist, I would have liked to see higher contrast between brights and darks. It seems a little too dark.

But extremely nice.

Awesome, Really!!
Well done.
RJS

Andy (hupster),

Nothing says "I love you" more than a bunch of flowers ... then to have your loved one labor hours over making sure they are just the right ones ... "priceless". You have really earned yourself big points with this one (don't worry, you don't have to report back to us with all the details). You have truly outdone yourself, even with the earthy tones. I think the way you placed the flowers in a pot of similar tone, sets off the whole piece.

Eric

Thankyou, Dan! I was worried about the darkness of the piece - the scan makes it look a little darker than it is, but yes, I agree. I was certainly very nervous whilst filling in the background as it's so dark I knew if it didn't work out I'd probably have to start the piece again (this was the 5th attempt as it was). It's a little awkward with the colours I have available in my pastel set too - I really must get a better set. With me not doing any work like this for so long it's not been on the priority list - that must change

Thanks for your constructive criticism - much appreciated

Cheers,

Andy




Thanks RJS!

Cheers,

Andy



Thanks Eric - I was a little puzzled for a while as to how to do the pot. The work is a construction from many photographs (mostly close ups of the flower heads) so I bit my lip and decided to leave the pot simple, almost invisible to the background to prevent it detracting from the flowers; I figured with the limited colour set I had I needed to do all I could to bring the flowers out into the main picture as the focus, but as Dan correctly said, it probably could have made it a little lighter than it turned out.

Hopefully it does score me some points - I framed it up nicely this afternoon and wrote a nice little personal message on the inlay ... I'm such a soppy so-and-so!

Thanks for your comments!

Cheers,

Andy

Andy,
I really loved this peice you did. I added a comment to it in your gallery. Actually I loved all of your drawings!! I hope I can get that good. Keep up the good work and I want to see alot more, Mister.
~venus~

Thankyou, Venus, you are too kind I'll post my next piece very soon hopefully

Cheers,

Andy