What is it

It's getting to be time to work on my Master Craftsman on Color, Step 4 submission. This step is on Perspective, Shading and Shadows. So here is an attempt to depict shadows and highlights.

This is not finished, and DH thought it was some sort of Tai Chi symbol. Oh well, this is what it was supposed to be; and from 6 feet away it doesn't look half bad!

I drew it with color pencils and then matched the pencils with the floss color.



Not a success, but did show possibilities, and I discovered some "new" techniques. The darker part of the apple shows surprising movement - not intentional but may be a useful application for the future. For the yellow highlights, I deliberately "distressed" the floss by untwisting it to make it finer.

While doing research for representing shadows, I read from one author that all shadows are blue, and then from another artist (and also from my art teacher Suzy) that shadows show the complementary of the local color. Also shadows have soft edges (unless cast in very harsh bright light).
This is an attempt to 1) add the complementary color (green) to the shadow, 2) depict the soft edges, and 3) to show the (light green) reflected light back onto the apple. Compare the following to the first photo, where the shadow does not have green. I haven't decided which one is better.

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