Still Life with Toys

[dancingleafwoman]

MY IMAGE(S):







GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Still Life with Toys
Year Created:
Medium: Oil
Surface: Board
Dimension: 5 x 5
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
This is the biggest effort of my Painting 2 class that just finished up. There are 5 gesso board paintings (so far) of individual young child's toys. These are the first oil still life paintings I've tried (not working from photos).

Colors in some of the photos are off. And I didn't know how to put a series in so I'm putting 3 in here and added the other 2 in a comment. Let me know if that's not ok and I promise to not do it again!



MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
I'm like to know if these "work". To me the truck feels like it might go in a different series. Not sure why - maybe because it doesn't have a face. Do they have depth? feel 3D?

Any criticism is welcome. I know I'm in very early lea<br>ing stage.

[dancingleafwoman]

here are the other 2. Also, are the photos ok. I'm still not very confident of my picture taking skills.

[dancingleafwoman]

Wow - colors are way too bright. They're not this way in real life.

[Poegirl]

For a first effort, I think these are fantastic! The bunny and chick is my favorite, they actually look fuzzy and cuddly.
Your angles and depth perception on the truck is really good.
The lines on the little elephant looks a little too stark, but overall I like these, good work!

[La_]

great studies indeed

do you have a color wheel?
buy one, make one, get one

shadow colors are important and are the only issue i have with your pieces
yellow background pieces *should* have purple tinted shadows (not blue, or green)
blue/green background pieces *should* have orange/red tinted shadows (not darker blue or grey).
same thing applies to the shadows on the actual subjects, but it's most noticeably off on the 'ground' in these pieces.

looking at a color wheel - any color directly opposite a color is the appropriate color to mix with to use for shadows
eg. red = green, blue = orange, yellow = purple
delicious 'browns' come of these mixes.

a final thought on shadows - they're see through, not solid, always = )

la

[darkwolf29]

I'm going to echo what was stated above and give you a piece of advice my painting teacher gave me a few months ago...

Stay away from toys for awhile. She suggested going to your art/crafts store and buying either flowers or fruit. Personally, I did both. You will find things are a bit easier when you are using something that does not involve the oddball shapes of toys.

I hope that helps you. I know I have been battling that same type of issue.

I do think that these are good for first time though. Keep at it and you will get there.

[dancingleafwoman]

Thanks guys.

@La: I never realized that about colors of shadows. I'll have to look at a lot of examples. I also have Guerney's "Light and Color" which I read very fast - couldn't put it down! I need to go back through it now that I've actually got some paint under my finger nails so to speak.

@Senwiz: I tried some other things and totally couldn't "connect" until I tried the toys. Somehow it just felt right. Now I think I'll go back and try other things. One thing I think will help is I'm taking a Drawing 1 class this summer. Starts Monday (may 21).

[AllanFink1960]

Oh I am going to go totally off the board here, and not be critical at ALL.
I think these are just adorable.
Yeah, the colors are bright, but toys ARE bright.
I think they work really well --maybe more as graphic design than renderings, but still, they should have a place on the wall of a kids room somewhere. Frame them up and give them to a new mom for Christmas.

Then do the apples and bananas in the next painting, and do all that arty farty stuff everyone mentioned above.

No, really, I like these a lot.
And for what it is worth, I think you have a VERY good eye for form and texture.

[dancingleafwoman]

Thank you Allen. Bad news - my Drawing 1 class got canceled because not enough people signed up. (That happens in summer because of the way Pell grants are structured.) I think I'll take a class called "Non-western Perspectives in Art".