Garden WIP- Which one?

[TessaW]

I think I'm almost done with the linework. It's taking forever. Going to put it away for a few days before making further tweaks.

[Chip Valecek]

@TessaW WOW thats impressive. I can't wait to see how you paint it.

[Kat]

Wow that looks great! Makes me want to color

[MichaelaH]

@TessaW Hi hi I missed the child in the rough sketches

[TessaW]

Color flats.

[TessaW]

Done maybe?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@TessaW WOW!!! I love the colors and the blurry brush strokes you did. Now this is just me but I think it would be great if the flowers weren’t as blurry as the girl to add more contrast and another level of storytelling— the girl’s world is colorless and uncertain hence the blurriness while the garden is a beautiful, safe haven hence the color and more focused surroundings. But then again, this is just me. I do really love your piece as is. Amazing!

[BichonBistro]

@TessaW I like this one best

[TessaW]

@BichonBistro Thank you!

[TessaW]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thank you! I see what you mean. I tried it without the flowers blurry. I'd need to clean up a couple of areas without the blur, but what do you think overall?

[Su]

@TessaW This is such a strong illustration! Do you have a story that goes along with it? If so, I can't wait to read it!

It would be lovely to have a combination of treatment—keeping of some blurred flowers (love that dreamy quality of the strokes) but mostly keeping the more defined ones. Nice job!

[MOO]

I love the glow around the flowers! Love the colors in contrast with the black and white. Really interesting.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@TessaW hi! I think it’s looking amazing!

[James Toogood]

This is looking Fantastic, it was really nice seeing it take shape. Im trying to improve my foliage myself, it can be very time consuming. great Job.

[Coley]

this is really lovely! so interesting and really draws the viewer in visually and story-wise too. I think I do like the sunflowers with a little less blur on them too. Super cool image!

[LauraA]

What a great visual allegory of the wonder of childhood and how adults hold children back from their imagination and intuition! The way the adult's thumb presses into the girl's skin and the hand grips her upper arm is telling. Also, I almost said something about how small the girl's irises and pupils are in her eye, but overall it helps to give her a slightly wasted-away look that adds to the story. I love your painting, and even the blurry flowers, but I see why it is better to have them in focus. I also like the color in the tips of the fingers. Good work!

One question: What is the difference between the large image and the one on the lower left? Am I just not seeing something obvious?!

[TessaW]

@Su Thank you! No, I don't have a story with it, but it would be interesting to see what kind of written narrative could be formed with it.

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen Thanks.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thanks for your help.

@James-Toogood Thanks James. Yes, foliage can be tough! I'm hoping it will just get easier and easier the more I do it.

@Coley Awesome, thanks for your input.

@LauraA Thanks for your awesome interpretation. I went back and forth with how to stylize her eyes. I wanted to convey a slight sense of desperation, and I also don't like to make things too pretty- so that's why the eyes ended up this way. Hopefully it does the job.

Your right that there isn't a difference between the top version and the smaller on the left! I just wanted to put a smaller version of the in-focus flowers right up next to the blurred version to get a better sense of the difference between them.

[TessaW]

Thank you every one for the feedback! I think I'll go with the non-blurry flower version as suggested by @Nyrryl-Cadiz , but just work a little on varying the edges of the foliage. Almost there! I'm looking forward to moving on to something new.

[Perrij]

Looks absolutely beautiful! Only comment, maybe its just me but I feel like having the flowers in darkness really takes away from the fact that they're full of color and beauty. The dark values obviously tone down the whole color aspect. Of course, I dont know if you'd be able to adjust this easily in photoshop, but if so..maybe worth playing with?

[TessaW]

@Perrij Thank you! I'm going to put this away for a while, but I've marked down your suggestion to consider when I look at it with fresh eyes. Sure appreciate your feedback!