Fantasy Mountains

[Mouse]

Are you drawing this in pencil, or ink. The reason I ask is that the lines seem very dark for pencil.

I'm not sure which of the two deciduous versions I prefer, but I definitely like the pines. Do you think they might look even better if you didn't shade the outer edge, but just drew the outlines of the pines without shading? The shading isn't normally part of the line work if you're intending to scan this and work it digitally. But if you intend to carry on to completion on paper, then the shading may need to be a bit lighter than that so that you can easily distinguish between the lines and the shadows.

Now that I've looked at it some more I would say that I prefer the deciduous trees on the right, but that's only because it doesn't have that thick hard shadow around the edge of the area. If you were to add more line work detail in the interior of both those areas they might look even better

All of this is purely my personal opinion, of course, so please don't pay too much attention to anything I say if I'm steering you away from a style you prefer

[Chris Lewis]

Are you drawing this in pencil, or ink. The reason I ask is that the lines seem very dark for pencil.

I'm not sure which of the two deciduous versions I prefer, but I definitely like the pines. Do you think they might look even better if you didn't shade the outer edge, but just drew the outlines of the pines without shading? The shading isn't normally part of the line work if you're intending to scan this and work it digitally. But if you intend to carry on to completion on paper, then the shading may need to be a bit lighter than that so that you can easily distinguish between the lines and the shadows.

Now that I've looked at it some more I would say that I prefer the deciduous trees on the right, but that's only because it doesn't have that thick hard shadow around the edge of the area. If you were to add more line work detail in the interior of both those areas they might look even better

All of this is purely my personal opinion, of course, so please don't pay too much attention to anything I say if I'm steering you away from a style you prefer

Thank you, Mouse. Yes, excellent thoughts as always. Yes this is entirely done in pencil. For the dark areas I used a 2HB lead (Ticonderoga wood pencil). I will keep working on the pines and practice drawing them without shading them in as you said, I think that will make them look better. I will also work on adding more line detail in the forest on the right. I figured that's what it would need. I think it has a good shape to it and that's what minimizes the cloud illusion.

Thanks again for your suggestions.
CL