Comments on: Members Minute 7/6/26

By: Hajra Meeks

Hajra Meeks — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:41:06 +0000

What a lovely piece, Rich! 😀
And thanks for your detailed, insightful, and very engaged constructive criticism, Matt. As usual, you do everything with such dedication, which I really appreciate and I’m sure so many others do as well. All your input will make anyone working on values and composition create stronger pieces. wishing you all good things, hajra

By: Teri Pope

Teri Pope — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 22:57:04 +0000

Hello Matt,

As you may know I have been doing value studies. This critique as always was a helpful one. Especially as I am working on improving my 50 – 50 drawing skills with measuring from the sides. Sometimes I am hard on myself because I miss some of the values but am working on it.

This is a lovely vineyard. With some friends in my young adult age we would go to Napa Valley in CA (Northern) and you could go from vineyard to vineyard wine tasting what you like. At the end you can rent a hot air balloon with a bottle of champaign bottle and a cheese and bread platter. I am not sure if it is the same now. Of course the Hot Air Balloon was out of our price range and, heights and I are not friends – lol!

These critiques are all wonderful. Thank you for so faithfully encouraging us through each of these.

Teri (Artsy)

By: Teri Pope

Teri Pope — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 22:49:33 +0000

Hello Rich,

I hope you are doing well. Thank you so much for sharing this lively vineyard drawing with us.

I have been doing some value studies and Matts suggestions and recommendations are always so helpful not just to you but all of us.

This vineyard reminds me of the ones I visited in Napa Valley, CA. We would go from vineyard to vineyard and they were all so amazing and beautiful. Where is this drawing from? Is it a place you have visited with your son? Please tell your son congratulations from another student at the Virtual Instructor and best wishes for his future life.

I am sure he will enjoy this beautiful gift.

Again thank you for sharing it with us.

Teri(Artsy)

By: Buddy

Buddy — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:11:10 +0000

Dear Matt, thank you very much for picking out this wonderful art work. I was totally drawn into the piece and your critique. Value is so important to make an art work look more realistic.
What kind of distracted my view is that the upper left field lines do float left out of the picture plane. I would have thought you would suggest to let the lines more floating back to the focal point. But maybe that would look too artificial?
As always, thank you for these so very helpful critiques you are providing every week.
May you and your family have a wonderful Monday and rest of the week,
Buddy

By: Buddy

Buddy — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:05:17 +0000

Hi Ritch,
Ooooooh wow! What a special wedding gift for your son! I so hope that he will love this wonderful drawing of the wedding place as much as you seem to like it. Thank you so much for showing your art work.
I do very much agree with Matt to further push the values to make this piece more pop. Just in case, you don’t have much tooth of the paper left, I would try it with Mars Lumograph Black graphite pencils, which are very dark.
I also agree with Matt that it would be nice to either put some information of clouds in the sky or cut it a bit.
With regards to your focal point, it does tell a story to me.
The upper focal point far in distance is the path your son and his wife are going to take in their future life together. The lower focal point does tell to me, before walking down the path, there is the wedding taking place (told by the barrel in the middle). So, no, I would not remove this barrel for this specific reason (as a replacement for the couple). Hope, this makes sense to you, as I am trying to give my emotions a decent wording.
Enjoy your week, Buddy