the work is a nicely
drafted piece of artist's work...
but, if we judge it as a painting...and consider that paintings work for reasons paintings work, a few things I think can elevate this from a fine draftsmanship to a fine painting...
seen as a grayscale...some of the jet's darkest darks compare to the darks along the distant shoreline...
Carlson taught (Landscape Painting 1929) that darkest darks are nearer to the viewer's eye and lighten going back, and the artist pushing and making use create a more convincing depth illusion.
He also taught...that of color, yellow is strongest hearer the eye...then going back in space is the first color to trail off. As it does, yellow becomes first orange, then red...which is a red many greens (such as in conifers) at about midground have a reddish hint in the greens. The color green (yellow + blue) sees then this change as yellow trails off...and in the greater distance green ridges appear bluish because blue is all that is left in the equation.
Red has that transition...as do other colors.
In addition color temperature cools as it goes back in space...
Unfortunately when painting from photographs...the information for the artist to use is incomplete. The camera being single eye lens, and aperatures prejudiced to push darks to pull in the light, convert darks to colorless spaces. Black...
I myself used photographs near exclusively for my career the first 17 years in studio...but only when I started painting outdoor around 1990...did I see that shadows allow for indirect light and reflected light to bounce color into them, and thus...shadows are alive. The darks are not colorless and lifeless.
You color presentation does not deliver the energy or punch we would actually experience and see...very likely because no doubt your photo reference fails to deliver.
Thus...one has to push such by understanding the nature Carlson speaks of in referring to values and color.
Another area the camera lies is in depth perspective.
hold up your hand at arms length and look at a specific spot...and peripherally how does the room, or objects behind the hand appear? They appear blurred...
now...look at the background or distant objects, and peripherally how does the hand appear? that's right....also blurred.
Thus in desiring to paint realistically we might also want to consider true truth...to challenge us.
The plane...were it to catch our full attention, were we in another plane, looking back at this pilot...it would be like the hand at full length, and the distant land mass would appear blurred out...but, the camera has the ability to lie counter to genuine human experience.
We get away often with that lie because we live in an image bombarded age, surrounded by the influence, and enculturation of photographs. Television, magazines, billboards...on and on. But, it is not true to life.
Now...grand painter and teacher Edgar Payne spoke on the deficit and thus challenges of painting. He said that the color of nature is 200 to 300 times more intense than what pigments born of earth minerals can imitate. He also said that we may see nearly 400 values with our eye, but are lucky to represent perhaps 40 at best. Thus...like it or not when we attempt to paint truth or realism, we are somewhat abstract painters.
Painting then is a bit like Picasso said, "a lie that tells the truth"...
so...to recover some of that deficit, and seeing we are orchestrators of this grand lie we propose to pull off...we push things. If we know we can only focus on one thing at a time...we can push the truth of that more. IF we know darkest values are darkest nearer to the eye...we can push that fact more...on and on.
Note now...by simply lightening up some of the distant values, and softening their detail report...how the plane pops now. Were you to add on top of that a push for purer color, warmer...versus a desaturating and cooling, you'd get an extra boost of drama!
Hopefully some food for thought for you...
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