Frustrated...Opinions Please

[campsart]

This is an 8x10 mixed media that I'm presently working on. I started out trying to depict a simple Delaware farmland landscape. I decided to throw in the deer for added impact. Now I'm stuck with wondering if this compo works or not. The deer is unfinished...shadowing, more leg detail, etc. The little barn seems to contrast with the main subject or vice versa. Should I lose the deer? Better yet, should I lose the whole pic? I'm very close to tossing this one http://www.wetcanvas.com/ubb/mad.gif

<IMG SRC="http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/06-Mar-2001/lonedeer.jpg" border=0>

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"Art is a jealous mistress and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1888), American essayist, critic, and philosopher.

[Lizelle]

i would't toss it away!!! The deer looks a bit big in this setting, perhaps try to make the background trees a bit bigger, and it should balance the painting....I think!!!

[4vincent]

I don't know if this would suit you, but what if you brought out some tree foilage in the foreground above the deer and shaded him in as shadowed by the trees; and then lightened/greyed down the background? Ken

[LDianeJohnson]

campsart,

Sometimes you start of with a great inspiration, this scene for example. It's when you feel like you have to "throw-in" something to make it work that it goes downhill.

This piece is very nice, you have two paintings going on. One wonderfully rendered deer in a nice position, then the barn/field. I recommend doing the field/barn again, just as you first wanted to, but allow the barn to be your focal point. Get up closer to it so the painting is stronger with the barn, or get farther away so the sky is the focal point.

Then do a great deer painting!

Diane

[campsart]

I so appreciate the comments, all. I will consider all points and see what I can come up with. If you get a chance, check out this same piece posted in the "critique discussions" forum and see what Mark Miltz and Bill Caroll did to the image to "enhance".

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"Art is a jealous mistress and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1888), American essayist, critic, and philosopher.

[LarrySeiler]

It looks a bit like two paintings, I think, because it seems that the value lighting on the deer is not representative of the same atmospheric lighting on the scene. This gives it a pasted in or "decal" look as a result, so you need to beef up the lighting on the deer. Your darks also do not compare to the background, so it lacks some of the drama that is going on elsewhere.

With an image this close...and especially in "wildlife art" the basic thought is to reserve the lightest lights, darkest darks, and purest hues for your subject to assure that viewer interest will hone in on the subject.

I think compositionally the balance is off. There should be some visual interest drawn to the upper left...clouds, etc., to balance it out. Actually about an inch or so above the trees to the left.

The line of the trees is so level, I think it needs to broken up a bit. Some vertical...such as an old lone tree left in the field about 60 yards from the deer. Space of sky poking thru..etc;

Larry

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The Artsmentor

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do!" Edgar Degas

[sharii]

My opinion......the scene is very nice, but because the background isn't "muted" enough it looks like it is on the same plane as the deer, which makes the deer look giant. Try making the background trees and barn a lot lighter and greyed down a little and I think it will look great. Also, the deer is looking out of the scene which will lead the viewers eyes out of the scene as well. I don't have any suggestions for fixing that except maybe a tree, or just some branches suggesting a tree to the right of the deer with at least one branch pointing back into the scene, which should lead the viewers eyes back in. Maybe a fence-post pointing back into the scene would work. Then maybe a small shrub or something to the left of the deer to balance it (like a see-saw).

[This message has been edited by sharii (edited March 08, 2001).]