Mike Sibley   Comment Posted Mar.25th, 2010, viewed 13 times

<<I managed it so much that I am ruining the already done.>>

When that begins to happen it's time to STOP, take what you've learned and use it in your next drawing. Keep doing that and you will improve drawing by drawing.

<<Honestly, it is the best I could do at the moment>>

Precisely! You can't expect perfection every time. In fact, if you ever do think you've achieved perfection that's the time to stop drawing! :o) You will never stop learning - unless you believe there's nothing left to learn, at which point your progress will halt completely.

<<...and it's the result I would never believed to reach out,just only two months ago.>>

I'm really pleased for you. And pleased for me :o) Helping you improve is all that I set out to do - and I fully intended to stretch you too, because you never know what you can do until you try.

<<I learned not only the techniques, but above all, the patience with myself, the courage to dare, the perseverance I never had, the precious feeling of "I can do it" and the humility of not being perfect.>>

That feeling of "I can do it" is the one that will carry you from drawing to drawing and allow you improve with each one. Remember also that the result may not be perfect but ONLY YOU know what it could have looked like. Everyone else will accept it at face value and not question it. Each of my own drawings tends to have one challenge - an area that I don't know how to draw. Sometimes I succeed beyond my expectations, at other times I fail to draw what I was seeing in my mind, but nobody else knows that :o) No amount of playing around with it will improve it and will possibly ruin the rest of the drawing. Call it "finished" and move on.

<<That said, Mike, I praise you for being a true "Maestro"; the italian word, my native language, expresses at the best what I want to say.>>

I don't know what to say... "Thank you" is hardly sufficient but I really appreciate your thought.

<<But, who knows, another course...>>
Well, I've been gathering ideas for an advanced course for the past few months but have never found a way of building natural steps in it. I'll try harder and see what I can do for later this year.

<<Ah, almost forgetting: critique, please. I would like to know what is strong and what is weak ... to balance :o)>>

OK, but I'm not suggesting you alter anything... this is done! It's time to move on. The only things that strike me as needing some attention are:

I would have liked the interior of the henhouse to be darker. That would add depth to the composition. Nothing inside needs to be plainly visible and often making such areas difficult to understand increases their natural feel. Robbie's back foot should have been darker too, as it's inside the shaded interior of the henhouse.

Eddie is looking so much better! The shadow beneath his chest gives him so much more solidity, body and three-dimensional form. A very bright highlight in his eye adjacent to his black pupil would have helped to draw the viewer's eye to him, as would the introduction of small amounts of black elsewhere - his nostril, for example.

Don't let those comments take away from what is an excellent drawing, especially at this stage of your development.

I've really enjoyed working and travelling with you, Anna.