Gollum Portrait—Structured Critique

[superupaman]

MY IMAGE(S):




GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Gollum Portrait—Structured Critique
Year Created:
Medium: Oil
Surface: Watercolor Paper
Dimension: 3.5x2.5
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
It's my first oil painting.

Being a newbie I don't know much about the materials or techniques etc related to painting. I tend to experiment almost every time and sometimes even without a faintest idea of why i am doing things that way. So please bear with me as I explain what I did in this painting.

Surface: I did this Oil paints on cold pressed watercolor paper (canson), maybe because that was the only thing available in my room. Lazy me.
It is a small ACEO card (3.5x2.5 inches), almost the same size of its scan.

Brush: I used one #5 round old watercolor brush, rough hair. Again, the only brush available. ^^;

Process: I used a reference picture (obviously), and started with the rough pencil sketch. Then I painted directly on paper. The painting process was kinda stupid, I realized it later that I could try painting the base color first. But that's the first attempt so I excused myself. :)
The major part of the painting is like...I pick the colors and paint that on roughly then wipe the brush a little (on a rag) and use the dry hair to blend/soften the paints by some to and fro strokes. That's it, more or less.



MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
One thing is I was not aware (and still am unaware) of is the dry time thing of oils. I don't know how much time should I wait and why etc. before painting over a layer. I mean this painting I did quickly (about 6 hours) but still there were times where I thought I'd messed it because of wet paint. I guess this is something I'll understand with experience.

But anyways, since I'm just trying to learn by practicing it, I'd really appreciate if you could take some time to comment or critique this work. Thank you so much.
~rupam

[AllisonR]

Creepy- that's a compliment. Good use of limited color palette to give it atmosphere. No crits. I am surprised you have so many reads on this post, and no replies, especially as this is your first oil painting.

[SvetlanaVS]

That is a great first attempt with oil paint! there isn't much room for critique. Minimal use of color is very great. Makes me think you should definitely stick with oils for a while and experiment more (if you have patience!)

The only constructive thing i can add is:

Your choice of surface is not very archival, so with short amount of time it will start to deteriorate. You might be able to do a layer of gesso on the back of the paper, and a layer to a panel and sort of "glue" it on there, but I'm not sure how archival that is, probably more so than just watercolor paper.

So next time you work with oil, use a more suitable surface!

[La_]

what a creepy little dude

oils are wonderful, you'll get used to them
different colors dry at different rates under different environmental conditions and depending of course on how thickly you apply them.
cadmium yellows seem to take the longest to dry on a pallet, and alizarin crimson is a long laster too ... and sap green ... white's not bad ... couple of days on a primed canvas is generally enough to be dry enough for another layer, unless you're goobering it on generously.
watercolor paper will soak up the oils and potentially leave areas of chalky color behind, get canvas books/tablets, boards, stretched ... primed, always primed. i guess you could even prime watercolor paper and it would work.

wet on wet application is great for a lot of things, soft edged things, smooth blending things, scootching and refining shapes ... adding layers atop dry layers is almost always an improvement option for pushing contrasts, depths and details.

looking at your reference there's room for higher key lights to be applied, which means there's room also for darker darks ... once what you have is dried (touch it gently - cool and/or tacky=don't touch, room temp and smooth=carry on)

monochromatic like this is perfect for learning oils and really, fun subject!

la

p.s. you're aware of copyright laws, right? the part where you could be sued for selling this piece without permission? (they won't give permission so be careful). i have no doubt you'd get offers, he's fully recognizable.

[henrik]

Good likeness, and a very successful first attempt at oil. Congratulation, on to the next project!