Using a Lighter Paper will Improve the Overall Tone of your Animal Paintings

Kevin has sent me his great picture of a Bullfinch that he completed prior to joining us as a member and has asked for feedback. I must say first off that this is a very good representation of the original, above left. Kevin has completed this on grey toned paper; this has had the effect of losing the brightness seen on the original.A better way of doing this would be to use a lighter toned pastel paper (our sand Ingres would be ideal), then use both a light grey (230) then a mid-grey on top (233 - Number of a Mid Grey from Faber-Castell's Range). Although this is much more difficult as well as more work the finished result would have been much improved.There are a few areas where the shape of the bird needs to be corrected see the black and yellow arrows and the beak is just a shade too small compared to the original (see red arrow).The most difficult are is the spidery foliage on the branch in a case like this it would have been wise to change the feature to a more recognisable branch. This would not be too difficult as there would be hundreds of examples on the web to copy from. However if Kevin particularly liked the branch as it stands then this would also have looked better on the lighter paper.If you would like feedback on your artwork, join any one of our membership packages.