Work today focused on the Kitty herself. I removed a lot of the white from the leaves and smeared some of the black along the left side of kitty to create a shadow on the grass from Kitty. I then corrected and enhanced the highlights and shadows so that it was clearer where the light source is coming from.
I think I may have done a little too much blending as the fur doesn't look quite "furry" to me. The kitty is looking very "smooth" which is a bit too unrealistic. However I am going to leave it for now. Now that the leaves look more like leaves and less like mushrooms, I will work on the "negative" spaces around them and the grass to create more depth. This part does become a bit tiresome as there's so much to cover, but if I work patiently the results will be well worth the effort!
Overall the image is looking more realistic and less like a child's book illustration - which is what I am going for. I could've left the leaves as mushrooms of course, but it wasn't what I was going for so...
One thing I want to point out - when you are drawing anything from life, the secret to keep it from looking like a cartoon is removing the "outline". In life, nothing has an outline. Objects have edges. The way to define those edges is through tonal differences. If you look at Kitty's left arm and left side of the face, you will notice that I have a dark patch right up next to a light patch. This is how you show an edge. With the rounded leaves, you can tell where the round leaf ends and the straight leaf begins by the change in tone (white against black). Next time you draw something, give this a try and see if your subject doesn't look more lifelike.
To see the progress in this image, I recommend taking a look at the previous 2 Kitty posts and see if you can follow what I've done.
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