Poppy Comparison in Pastel Pencils - Feedback

Reni sent us these pictures of two poppies she has painted, the one on the left was completed with Conte pastel pencils on Tisiano pastel paper without any instruction from us. The one on the right was completed on our sand coloured Ingres pastel paper with Faber-Castell pastel pencils following my video instructions, in Reni’s own words ‘what a difference’ - I think that the two pictures above speak for themselves.Reni has asked if I could give her a few tips on how her picture on the right could be improved. Reni was having a problem with using the black following my instructions and used 181 Payne’s grey instead. This has worked out quite well but the painting would still have looked better if the black had been applied with a lighter touch on top of the reds, as 199 black is a better darkening agent than 181 in this case. The other area which can be improved is in the background behind the stem, see black circle. If this area was lightened more evenly the stem would have appeared with more clarity.All in all I think Reni has done a great job on this painting and I thank her for letting us see the difference the right materials and the right instruction can make.