Come see my sweet red pepper

**Christian223** · July 29th, 2006, 10:53 PM

I searched for the traduction of "morron" (spanish name of this vegetal) and thats what came up on the title, sorry if its misleading.

I spent many hours with this one, please critique about colors specialy, or anything else, thank you!. (made in photoshop elements3)

**arttorney** · July 30th, 2006, 12:10 AM

Traduccion en Ingles es "translation."
Vegetal es "vegetable."

The vegetable, which we also might call a red bell pepper, looks pretty good. I could not figure out what was the meaning of the fingerprints to the right. When I look very close there seems to be some fuzziness around the upper margins of the pepper, as though there is still some stuff the eraser didn't get.

**Snarfevs** · July 30th, 2006, 12:21 AM

This vegetable is also known as a 'Capsicum'

Good attention to the shape and strength of reflections.

**Christian223** · July 30th, 2006, 02:58 PM

Thank you for your comments (for the english and spanish class too

).

They are not fingertips, they are supossed to be reflections, thats why i asked advice about the colors in special, because i had many trouble in trying to make it look like a reflection and this is the best i could get, so, how do i make a correct looking nice perfect awesome reflection looking color?

**arttorney** · July 30th, 2006, 08:06 PM

Give me a couple of days to think about that. I am a freelancer for my day job, but in another field. For about the next 24 hours I will be churning out a bunch of work before my July billing period ends.

The highlights on the pepper suggest it is lit by perhaps three light sources. That will make the reflection complicated, and there may be shadows as well as reflections. What is the pepper reflected against? Is it next to a window or a stainless steel pot? The shape of the reflecting surface will affect the reflection.

**Christian223** · July 30th, 2006, 10:03 PM

I didnt understand the first part...

Well, the pepper was next to my monitor, it was lit by it and by a white light on the ceiling, also by the reflection of it on the walls and on my desktop where it was placed, and also by reflection of my speakers, and from the light that came from the room next to my room, so it was very complicated lighting, wich i think i got right, the thing is the colors of the reflection, wich dont convince me at all... the monitor was reflected in the top of the pepper, it didnt have a real defined shape so i guess i got it right, the white reflected light (from the desktop) is the one that intrigues me most because in the pepper it appeared to be blue, but there was no blue light in my room!, this light was the one reflected by the ceiling light that bounced on my desktop where the pepper was placed, so thats the blue/grey color you see on the lower and right and middle/up part of the pepper... it looks like dirt to me but... its the best i could get.

**silken** · July 31st, 2006, 01:19 AM

I'm guessing the dots on the side are the palette for the piece...

They are however all red.

I like it....hmmm...maybe use some yellows for the highlighting rather than white? white tends to dull down if not used sparingly enough. Don't be afraid tro add some orange to it either...

For teh shadows...I'd go with purples and blues....it might add a little more life to the pepper...

**arttorney** · August 1st, 2006, 02:08 PM

Thank you Silken. It looks like I was going off on a tangent thinking about how those dots could be a reflection.

I'm sorry for the slang above Christian. I was talking about how busy I was. At first I thought this pepper looked so good I wanted to cut it up and make some lunch. Now as I look at the upper highlights they look like abdominal muscles to me and when I look down lower I see some other human anatomy. I start to think this piece could be worked into a really surreal psychological type of image. I'm not sure if that is what you had in mind, though.

**Christian223** · August 1st, 2006, 05:26 PM

Oh, ok, now i get it

Well, i was trying to do a realistic vegetable, not abstract, but maybe humans dont evolve from monkeys, but from vegetables, so thats why you see the likeness in the shapes, besides, plants are alive, right?

Thanks silken, ill follow your advice for my next pieces.
Now that i have been thinking on it, i guess that i used too much grey and little saturation, or not, maybe i should need to increase the whites in those greys... i think i need to train my eyes a bit more to be able to understand this. Thanks!.

**Stars and Bars** · August 1st, 2006, 08:43 PM

I think you executed the anatomy of the vegetable fairly well, but I don't like the lighting at all. Its very dark, and thus really does not allow it to truly be seen. If you don't increase the overall lighting, perhaps increase the brightness and radius of the glare.

**Blue** · August 1st, 2006, 09:05 PM

Colors are fine. Execution is also acceptable. Smooth out your shadows, reflections and sharpen edges.

You have a few lighting anamolies, but nothing to get in a huff about. If nothing else, make your bright spots, brighter at the center.

**kinjark** · August 1st, 2006, 10:42 PM

dont blend your tones with the blur tool. its seems that is what you did. instead look deep into the pepper tones and try to match the tone and apply it flat, paying close attention to the juxtaposed tone next to it. payattent to how each tone fits next to one another. try to get this exact, do now niggle around with it. each tone should be as flat as possible, tones should not turn idividually, the mass turns. think in terms of facets.