Jan's Barn Owl and Kingfisher Feedback

One of our members Jan has recently joined our membership and sent in two of her pictures for feedback. To receive advice and tips on your work as well as access all our lessons, click here.Here's Jan's Pictures:

Listen to Colin's Advice or read the transcription below:

Hi Jan. Steve sent me your two pictures over one of the owl and one of the Kingfisher and asked me to tell you what I thought. Well what I think is they're both really good. You've done a great job of them particularly as you're using derwent pencils. I've tried using derwent myself and not with a lot of success I've got to say so when you get the Faber ones I think all things will change. As far as the owl's concerned you haven't done a background on that so it's something that would have benefited from it and so if you can see a way to do that it does help to present the picture better. I think apart from the tree stump or tree trunk that he's sitting on. That's not bad. I've seen a lot of those done in my time and that's certainly one of the better ones.So I think with practice especially when you've got the faber-castell pitt pastels you'll be able to do a little bit more. Don't forget to you can mix derwent and Faber together. In fact I've just done a picture today I was working on a picture where I wanted to use one particular colour and I couldn't find it in my range and I picked up derwent because I've got a range of derwent as well and I used that so you can use and inter mix them. I'm going to move on now to the Kingfisher which again I like very much. And you said that you weren't terribly happy with the tree trunk or branch. I think you've done quite a good job of that to be honest and I would accept that once again I think with the Faber Castell pencils you could probably have improved it just a bit more. But don't lose that feeling that you've got. It's a bit more impressionistic and I tend to go for that kind of thing. The only thing I would say there's one small thing - tiny really when you look at the top of the tree trunk and on the left hand side of the bird you've got a line there where you can just see the graphite line or line from the outline drawing.Well that line should be either lighter or darker. Now it really has got to be darker than the background because it doesn't show up much and this is the sort of thing you've got to watch most of the rest of it's not too bad but that needs to be darker. The tree trunk there needs to be a little bit darker and it would also make the back of the Kingfisher where you've got the blue of the back feathers and the tail meeting that would have shown that up a little bit better. It's only a small thing. Something to watch in the future.But anyway I think you've done a great job and I look forward to seeing more of your pictures.