Annes Puffin

Question? Are you using cheap paints?

I tweaked your puffin in my photo-editing program. I am by no mean accomplished at this procedure, but for what it is worth, here it is. You can see I have added a shadow to the under part of the birds beak. Now it looks rounded instead of flat. I lightended the variated the shadow above the birds eye. I have increased the shadows on the body, and changed the shadow on the grass. The grass is longish, so maybe you would see the birds feet? You background looks ok-ish. (I told you I am a hard task master) Keep practicing. Practice using a rigger like Ree suggested for painting grasses. Look in those videos for how to paint grasses. You have the right idea, in that the grasses become more blurred the further they reced into the background.
Shadows are TRANSPARENT. Always transparent. When you go for your walk, study the shadows all around you. That is how I learnt. At first all saw were plain brown shadows, then I started to really look, I got down on the ground and looked. I saw that the shadows are darker closer to the source (object casting the shadow) and lighter the further away the shadow was. The shadow is warmer next to the source too, and cooler the further away is it. I saw colour in the shadows. That took a lot of practice looking, but I finally got it and statred to see the colour. When I am out now, I actually paint things in my head naming the colours I would use in my head. A shadow is always transparent, you can always see the support, the table ground whatever the object is based on through the shadow. (for what iot is worth, I made a huge error on my nectarine shadow, beside the colour, and it was pointed out to me by my friendly art critique.) WE have to remember this in every apitnign we paint. WE need to practice these techniques over and over so they become seconf nature. For me reading is as good as painting, so here ar esome links that might help you. Aslo have a look through those video's on the video bar on the right. Get one up un a seperate window by clicking on it and then search for videos on painting shadows. Seeing is better than reading


Shadows.

Look at these links.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/1805/264/
This one is pastel on paper, but it relates to whatever medium you use and is a good start.

http://painting.about.com/od/landscapes/ss/lightdirection.htm
Determining your light direction.

When you you paint shadows http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginnersfaq/f/FAQshadows.htm

SHADOW COLOUR http://painting.about.com/od/colourtheory/a/shadows_Impress.htm

Cast shadow and form shadow http://painting.about.com/cs/paintingknowhow/a/shadows.htm

Simple advice on painting shadows. http://www.johnlovett.com/shadows.htm

COLOUR Lurking in shadows. http://www.carolinejasper.com/pages0/inprint/AmArtst11.01.htm

Read through these. We will have a shadow paint in when I can, just can't right now..