Mike Sibley   Comment Posted Apr.21st, 2009, viewed 3 times

Hi Paul,

For a first try it's very good! The wood needs to be played down, as it's just a backdrop for the grass and shouldn't fight it for dominance. Also old weathered wood (almost any wood really) doesn't exhibit a pronounced grain.

You could, as I suggested, had darkened the wood towards the bottom. It's shaded by the grass and, as it's rotten, the damp creeping up from the ground would darken it too. That would have given you a wider range of tones to use for the grass. And the tops of the leaves could have been left very light, as they're in full sunlight.

Your leaves look very thick (as are most posted here this week) because your highlights suggest a thick, tubular form. Leaves are broad and flat so the highlighted edge would be very thin. Of curse the broad face would also contain some highlights, but not as bright as the edge. I'll post a Suggestion that I'll quickly put together in Photoshop to give you an idea of what I mean... not very well, as it turned out! But it might give you some idea :o)

Notice I've used some cast shadows too, to suggest depth and to display the edges better. You could (should) also use cat shadows on the barn wall itself to further push the grass forward. That wasn't a part of this exercise but there's nothing to stop you taking these things a stage or two further.

Watch the edges of those leaves. They need to be sharp!