"Garden Secrets" by Eliera Diego

Lovely! Really great shading! Very beautiful drawing!

Eliera Diego replies: "Thank you so much! I had fun doing this one and to hear that other people are enjoying this one makes me all the more happy!"

Very nice Era!
I am sure a lot of the subtle shading was lost in the scanning process but this is still a beautiful piece.
Be careful not to fill the background with a bunch of individual leaves that are the same shape, size and color.
Look at a bush and notice how the shapes of the leaves change as they twist and turn in different directions. Also note how they overlap and how the shadows fall on the inner leaves creating more of a suggestion of leaves that you can achieve with shading texture effects. You may even want to let some sky peek through in areas. And remember your light source!!!

I suggest the tracing paper technique to get the line drawing layout and composition right before you fill in the original piece.

I am happy to see you are getting pointers from Maxine, she does some nice graphite work.

This is your best so far. I hope to see more like this with completed shading and texture. All of your other pieces have a good base structure, you just stopped too so on the shading and texturing. Great job! Keep them coming

Eliera Diego replies: "Nice to hear from you again Tony! Aw, you said its beautiful! Well if that doesn't make me happy...! Ha, I had a lovely time trying to figure out how my shading was coming along and I was already planning on using your tracing paper technique thanks to your past help and tips! Ah, and the light source- one of my biggest problems yet (we won't touch on the topic of hair today)...I think I actually will go find a bush to help me out, might do better than just winging it! Aw, and thank you- I'm actually quite proud of this one and I'm glad that you find this one acceptable! Whoo, now I'm getting all excited to get moving again! "

Yay, a new piece from you for me to comment on! How wonderful! Now, the first thing that really made me go 'woah' with this was the look in her eyes - there is so much personality and presence in it! She really looks like she could exist in the real world. (: I think you did a good job both on the expression and the depiction of her age - she definitely looks to be around the mudplaying age. (:
Also, this, much like all of your pictures because they all share this lovely quality, really makes me want to practice my realism skills more. It reminds me of how much I really do love these kinds of pictures! I think I need to come back to your gallery every time I've been watching too much anime style art, to repent. xD That'll work. I hope.

Either way - you go girl! You're doing great!

Eliera Diego replies: "Ha, yay! And it took long enough to get this one together, but I like it. And I'm even more proud now that her eyes made someone (especially you)go "woah"! Ha, your art is JUST fine- believe me! Besides, there's nothing wrong with anime- some of that stuff out there is very beautiful!Aw and thank you again- I'm glad you like my gallery so much! Hopefully I'll be adding some more pieces soon, so that's exciting for me. Thank you Vilhelmina for your such brilliant and ego-pumping comments- they always make my day. "

A nice background of just a few leaves hanging behind her like she's peeking out from a tree would be enough. You could even use one of them fancy computer things to test out what would work best.

Eliera Diego replies: "I agree- I'm having a lovely time trying to figure out exactly how to place the leaves (I don't exactly have the patience for computers, let alone do I have the right software )...it's fun though! Thank you again- and sorry for the late reply- takes me a while to get around here sometimes. "

Love the eyes!

Eliera Diego replies: "Aw, thank you so much John! The eyes are my favorite part of this piece also- thank you for noticing them and commenting! "

Everybody can see that this is a really good picture, so I will simply say that it fundamentally rox.

aw shes cute!! u did great on her and the expression is awsome,she looks reel