Dreaming of Spring

[jonifaye]

A touch of oil pastels over watercolor.... I'm calling this 9x12 finished, but suggestions to improve it are very welcome. Thanks for looking and for any advice.

Joni

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Mar-2007/44855-DSCF2116.JPG

[pampe]

charming flowers and colors.

My only nit would be the way you have placed the main tulip right in the middle.

[Uschi]

Good job Joni! Would you have a photo of this piece before you added the oil pastels, Having never worked with oil pastels I am just curious what difference it made!


Uschi

[Europa]

Love the vibrant colours.

Pat

[jonifaye]

I only have this photo so I can't show you the before-pastel look....I only added a slightly darker shade of red pastel to mainly the tulips when the paper was dry and blended it in with my finger. I don't know the rules of either medium, but since the paper was dry, it seems to work fine and it did add to the piece.

I also didn't think the tulip should be in the center...but after it turned out quite large, it seemed to deserve center attention. I think it's the only one I've done that has the focal point in the center and agree with you that it's probably not such a good idea. (It happened w/o enough prior thought)

Thank you for the replies!
Joni

[laudesan]

Joni it is a lovely painting..:) I also have oil pastels here but haven't tired them yet except to make a mark on paper to see what they did..:)


:wave:

[jonifaye]

Thank you. Try them sometime to see how you like them alone or combined with another medium...they work well with pencils also.

I'm not liking the pointy petals now, so I'll be working on this one again when possible.

Joni

[KathyJB]

Beautiful!!! You could crop a little on the left side and the tulip wouldnt be centered so much anymore,
Love those brilliant red colors and thr translucent blues,

[mgthorvaldsen]

:wave: Hi! Joni, Interesting, bold color, good effects. Regards, Marianne

[FriendCarol]

It looks very stylized, not sure why. Although I love looking at mixed media, I hate working with anything other than w/c... Anyway, I think your pastel work adds to this piece (I particularly hate holding oil pastels!). :p

Maybe it's that the flower petals are all so intense, and the bg so pale. Maybe that's what seems so stylized about it?

[jonifaye]

I'm not too sure if stylized is a good thing or not--I'll have to look up that word as an art term to know how to respond to that. Thank you for the replies whether favorable or not--they've always helped me improve mine in the past and hopefully this one will improve as well.
Joni

[olliewood0702]

This is a lovely, fresh, clean painting! And YES.....it's puts one to "dreaming of Spring!"

[jonifaye]

Keep in mind....it's a dream.

(Did I overdo it? I have a habit of not knowing when to stop....) It could be washed out a bit.

For now:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/17-Mar-2007/44855-DSCF2145.JPG

Joni

[jonifaye]

A lesson to do a favorable background first....still working on this one. Suggestions?

Again:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/17-Mar-2007/44855-DSCF2191.JPG

[FriendCarol]

Sorry, didn't mean "stylized" as an 'art term.' (Don't know what it would mean as an art term!) I meant something like 'idealized,' although less abstracted than idealized probably means. It's a unique look -- not abstract & not naturalistic, not really 'folk art,' either. I don't know if your work typically looks like this, but it's quite unusual, imo.

Isn't it interesting how, between the last 2 pix, the softened bg apparently makes the flowers (which you haven't actually changed, have you?) seem to glow? Just something I'm noticing, not a critique. :D

[jonifaye]

I think I came off sounding like I was down about your previous comment. I haven't had art lessons and didn't know what your comment meant exactly. Thanks for explaining it. I do think mine (I think if you click on the url below my name....my pieces here show up....) look alittle like this one (dreamlike?). It's a good term (dreamlike) for not knowing how to accurately do any type of medium yet! You're right that it (and they) don't really fit an exact type of art.

I'm really on here for critiques not having an art class to go to, so I hope I didn't scare anyone away by my reply to you. I need help! : ) Thanks for replying again.

Joni

[jonifaye]

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/18-Mar-2007/44855-DSCF2209.JPG