CRITIQUE 13 geoff in oil part 2

Wow Pandora, you have been busy!!

Yes, the blue background is fine.
I see you did many updates! You are doing a great job!
The T-shirt is a nice add in!

Your flesh tones are very nice, but be careful of the dark areas that they do not become too gray-blue.

The cheek shapes are looking good and I know it took a lot of study and work to accomplish this level of detail.

Note how detail at jaw-line and chin make face appear longer and less round.



EDITS BY PANDORA:

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif

CRITIQUE 13 - geoff in oil

QUESTION:
I would appreciate any help that you can give me, First portrait  oil painting 

Thank you Pandora

CRITIQUE:

Coming along nicely!  

I recommend placing some preliminary lines in your drawing before painting to make sure you have your angles and features in the right position. you will continue to check these angles as you paint. See photograph as well as line across the eyes on painting. 

The left side of the face (as we are looking at the image) is good and you also have a nice cheek color there but note how that eye and eyebrow are a tad large and low.  I have made it more obvious by drawing a line across the painting and on the photo.

TIP:
tape the photo directly on your canvas - have it lined up with the painting edges maybe put it tight in a corner of the canvas so you have 2 edges lined up- now put a ruler across the eyes in the photo and that same angle should be reflected in the eyes in your painting. 

Reflect back to the instructions for the drawing critique- note the angle of the jawline and define the shape of the chin. 

Note that the neck needs to be a tad wider on right side (as we look at the painting). 

You are doing great! just keep refining the features and watch it evolve!!  
This is a beautiful painting Pandora - it evokes much feeling in the viewer!

cj

EDITs BY ALICE:

CRITIQUE TO BE CONTINUED....
>>HERE<<

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif

CRITIQUE 12 - TWO ABSTRACTS part 1 and 2

QUESTION from Jan Stickland:  Please give me your honest opinion of them and if i could improve on them somehow
ANSWER:  
Hi Jan - thank you so much for submitting for a critique!  Your abstracts are vibrant and full of color!  Very lovely!!
I don't need to talk color as you have a vast knowledge of it already!!
But I will talk about using value to set up a composition in a painting like this where you cannot lean on the structure of shapes to create the composition.

When an image has a lot of the same or similar value it may not have a strong focal point or direction for the eye to follow or be held in the piece.  
If you notice in the first image, it is much the same value overall, however, there is a hint of the eye heading toward the vortex...  so - If I enhanced that though hopefully we will see a stronger composition with interest to make the eye travel within the piece and also an area to slightly hold the eye's interest.
ORIGINAL PAINTING:

EDITED IMAGE:
Note the stronger lighted areas and how they grab your eye and lead you around the painting in a swirl motion to the center dark area just below the highlighted school of fish.

 There are several patterns that artists utilize in paintings whether they are abstract or representational.  one is the z pattern another is the triangle and so on.  These patterns make the eye follow through the piece to "read" it and create visual interest and visual sense.

For people who read left to right the eye naturally looks for patterns that match that idea.  Same with right to left readers, etc.
A strong pattern in this piece (to me) is a triangle

This is not the only answer, of course...  but it might give you a jump start!  
Best of luck with your work - it is wonderful!!
cj
PART 2:

QUESTION from Jan Stickland:  Please give me your honest opinion of them and if i could improve on them somehow
ANSWER:  PART 2 
Hi Jan - thank you so much for submitting for a critique!  Your abstracts are vibrant and full of color!  Very lovely!!  And I apologize for the photoshop mutilation of your artwork!  ;)
Again, great use of color and great excitement and movement in your 
ORIGINAL WORK:

Of course - for every "rule" there is the exception!  
I spoke a bit about patterns with your last abstract piece in part 1.

We read from left to right and tend to read paintings in the same manner.  If we don't  find landmarks where we expect them, then we are confused and do not know that to look at.
So, as in this piece, we give em landmarks via shape size and by changing value and contrasting areas in this
CRITIQUE:

So you see ... we have set the pattern the eye will follow with the falling orbs into a dark center with a glowing atmosphere that leads to the focal point of the highest contrasting values which is the left edge of the "hole"    
So you can set up tried and true patterns in your paintings - OR, you can set your own path for the eye to follow through your piece.
I hope that helps some - and remember - everything said is brought from that person's experiences in life - so you might find other solutions that work just as well from your experiences.  
There are many paths to the same goal! -cj
Best to you -
CJ

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif

CRITIQUE 10 - Values

QUESTION from Terry: Please have a look at this one for me CJ..  It's been on the back burner since 06 and really needs to escape from the studio.It's four feet square, Acrylic on an Oak Plywood panel..

ANSWER: AND CRITIQUE
Terry,   Cool painting! Time to finish it up!!  ;)
I would work with the values-

Enhance main character:  Highlights on the main character bring the eye more strongly to the focal point. Note how I have added several brightened areas to the main figure... You don't want to add too much, but just enough to make the eye see the whole figure and stay interested with maybe a glimpse or two to the outer edges.

I also enhanced the row of ladies as I feel they are of secondary importance. In turn, I enhanced some of the grass at the dancer's feet to lead the eye to and from the dancers.

To help the eye know what to look at, I dulled down the color on the sides to keep the eye from becoming overwhelmed with bright value and color. especially hot spots of color in the form of one bloom or several.

You can dull down the background areas with a thin glaze of grayed down color and of course you can enhance the figure with stronger/lighter and brighter color via glazes and direct painting.
 EDITED IMAGE:


ORIGINAL IMAGE:

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif

CRITIQUE 14 - Beginning Landscapes- help getting started

QUESTION:

CJ, my problem is landscapes... I never really got into them.
Oils especially....any good exercises or ideas- P.S> I am not really a detail painter...sort of..also am a grad. of Ringling School of Art and design so I know quite a bit about design, comp.,
just those boring landscapes lol Help!
C 

ANSWER:
Do some research before painting landscapes for the first time or if you find you are painting boring or lifeless landscapes.

*Familiarize yourself with landscape paintings, compositions, colors, etc:

1. Check out contemporary and old master paintings - decide what type of landscape scenes you are attracted to.
2. Do you like more abstracted, impressionistic or photo real.
3. Study what it is you like about your favorite landscape paintings and try to get that "wow" factor into your paintings.

*Familiarize yourself with your desired medium

1. practice mixing the colors that you responded to in your favorite landscape paintings.
2. after you can re-create your desired colors - it helps to paint a page of cloud like structures and use all of the colors that you selected.
   *See how they look side by side
   *See how they look slightly intermingled
   *See how they look, one glazed over another

*Practice with the paint until you have good clean color and understand how the colors interact with one another. Don't think landscape... yet.

*Any good painting begins with a good drawing. Poor composition can ruin a painting with perfect color notes. So understand good composition be it for an abstract or realistic landscape.

1. Sketch out several thumbnails of possible compositions
2. if you are painting from photos - have large clear photos
3. Take many photos close up and far away.

PHOTOS For Reference:

1. Do not slavishly paint from a photo.
2. Remember that the camera "lies" - a black shadow in the photo has loads of detail in real life, that is, when you are actually standing there at the scene
3. Make sure you understand what distortions the camera creates in your scene as to color, value, loss of detail, point of interest, and more
4. Make some sketches while taking your photos
5. Make note of what you found interesting and why you took the photo to begin with.

Click here -->>CHECK OUT THE DESERT SCENE CRITIQUE where a landscape photo was explored for a painting.

 Thanks for asking!
CJ

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif

Tip on acheiving VALUE balance in your art

grayscale posturized image vs full color image

Many paintings fail due to poor value balance.

If a painting is nearly all one value, it will lack life even if it is correct compositionally.

A way to see value is to:

1. Open image in photoshop
2. At the top of the screen select: Image/mode/grayscale
3. At the top of the screen select: Image/adjustments/posturize
4. set for around "5"
5. with experimentation of the numbers in step #3 and 4 you can see that the higher the setting the more detail shows up.
   
6. the idea is to not have the detail and only see larger shapes of value (light and dark).

As a pre-painting step - run your image through this process and then reference the resulting print-out to make sure you preserve proper values as you paint.

You can also take a photo of a completed painting and run it through this process to see if you have the needed value balance within the piece.

If you posturize a color image it can assist you in discovering subtle colors or give you coloration ideas to add to your painting!

http://cdn.stumble-upon.com/images/32x32_su_shadow.gif