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msafs — Orchid
Published: 2010-01-25 22:49:30 +0000 UTC; Views: 1273; Favourites: 17; Downloads: 19
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Description
I drew this in March of last year with colored pencils from a photo of my mother's orchid. I kind of wanted to draw it from life, but the lighting was shining rather intensely on the orchid, and the ambient light was low. This explains the dark black shadows. I thought about adding a background, but that would have made the picture too busy. I think it looks pretty nice as a blackish pink orchid, too.Criticisms/critiques are welcome, as always.
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Comments: 10
Hi
I have feature your wonderful picture in my Journal ---> [link]
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This is amazing! (I swear I'm not just trying to sound nice, this is one of your best pictures IMO.) I really like the detail in the flowers and the lighting of the picture.
Something seems off about the pot and leaves, but I have no idea what, since there's nothing impossible in the drawing. Maybe the reference was from an angle that looks unusual, or maybe it's just in comparison to those amazing flowers.
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Thank you! 
The bottom of the pot is cropped in such a way that the rim and the base wouldn't be parallel (if the pot was created from my drawing), so it would have a sort of trapezoidal profile from the side. I think that's what it is. It was from a weird angle, but the shadow still makes the pot look incorrect.
I think I did the flowers first, so the rest of it was a bit rushed, especially the soil.
The leaves each have a kink in them that I wouldn't really have expected from thick leaves (it seems like they would break), so they have odd shapes, but the highlights around the kinks should have had more contrast.
Thanks for your nice comment.
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(Read the comment, but I don't have a reply for most parts, and now I have to send two lines in reply. Wish I had more to say...)
You're welcome
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Well, I can't really fix anything in it, anyway, since colored pencil doesn't erase, and it looks like crap if you try to draw over things or use too many layers.
I might put it in the school art case when it's my turn to fill half of it, since I have too many other drawings with colored pencil.
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"since I have too many other drawings with colored pencil."??? Isn't this colored pencil?
nice emoticon finding.
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Whoops. I meant "I don't have too many other colored pencil drawings." I want to showcase diversity. It will probably just end up looking random and disorganized. Now I need a watercolor and an ink drawing... *runs off*
Lolrus... I love 
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Aah. You've said before that your art doesn't look like it has a style to you, but I think there is one of some sort. I can tell if something is yours or not, but I don't know why.
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Because all (most) of them say "msafs" on them?
I know that I'm sort of starting to develop a style for mechanical pencil drawings, since I've drawn a huge number of self portraits and figure drawings, and I use a tortillion to smudge all of them in pretty much the same way, but it's harder to identify a style when the subjects and mediums aren't that related.
Although I'm glad that a style is developing, and that it's wide enough that it can only be described by a feeling, and not by a concrete thing. Maybe some day, I'll look back at these drawings and figure out what it was that united them.
Or maybe it's my tendency to "lose the forest for the trees"... paying attention to the tiny details of foreground objects without regard to background or how the image works from far away.
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No, I mean just glancing at the thumbnails in my inbox without reading anything, I know if it's yours. Maybe it's the way you do light and shadow or something... Could even be part of how your hands move when you make them. It's definantly not dependant on the subject. I wonder if it would still be there if you did a picture that immitated another artist's style?
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