@Doug Wittnebel a link would be great, I’d love to see more if your work.

@Doug Wittnebel Thanks, some really nice work..For some reason the Hoover Dam sketch really called to me. Also loved the Totoro sketch, I’ve been a Miyazaki fan for decades.

@Richard Valdez Welcome to one of the most fruitful groups I’ve been involved with. I am an architect and photographer practicing in Colorado. I finally weaned myself from AutoCAD after figuring out that I could load dwg files in Sketchup. I’m still using a desktop setup but try to do as much as possible on a 13“ iPad. My workload was able to permit that, not sure if civil engineering work will allow you to stray too far from AutoCAD. As Henry noted you should give Morpholio Trace a look. It allows some very quick work to be performed in scale. I look forward to seeing some of your work.

Caitlin, I think this is a great style and applaud your effort and the acknowledgment that you are still looking for something that feels intuitive to you. Some things you might try, and I’m assuming you really want the landscape/planting to stand out, is maybe use a little less of a brush style stroke in the background and simplify it with flat panels of color. I think Henry’s comment on graphite linework used as edges and shading on the natural materials is great and follow your thought on what color to use, try a couple and see what works best. Ron’s comment on opacity can also help and you can play it several ways by leaving the trunk solid and varying the capacity on the leaves. Take it one step further and very leaf opacity as you paint. One other thing I think that might be working against you is the complexity of the shadow work. What you have done probably resembles the dappling of light in reality very well. This may be one of those times when reality works against you and some (not all) of that effect might be simplified to let the plant material stand out more. This is a great start and I look forward to seeing your progress on this.

@Caitlin Cunningham my personal favorite type of illustration style leans towards the painterly end of the spectrum. I even strive for that in some of my photographs as sometimes 'reality' is too real for me. As they say 'time is money' so striving for an efficient use of hours when performing for clients is a good goal also. Good luck and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Welcome @Carla Acosta. This is a fun, talented group and I look forward to seeing your work.

@Ron Sieh at this point I have given up on a screen protector as it creates more negative than positive for photo editing. I haven’t tried the felt like tip. Is that one of the other ones from PenTips?

@Ron Sieh I’ll check that out, thanks.