My first oil pastel work - glass fruit bowl

[christinemlr]

Hi,



This oil pastel is cropped from a sketch I did this morning - which is posted in sketch thread. I want to make a full oil pastel painting on board using this composition and would like some critique, comment on how I could make it better. At the moment its small, about 5x 5 " on plain cartidge. I quite like the way the pastel leaves dots of white space and may keep that effect on a painting which I would like to enlarge to about 8 x 8"

Xina

[Pat Isaac]

Welcome, Xina. Wonderful first OP. I like the crop that you made. I think there could be a little more distinction between the apple in the back and the glass bowl. I also wonder if a different color background might be more dramatic, maybe something dark. I like the shine on the fruit and the glass reads well.

Pat

[artbyDanielDyment]

That looks really good! Keep doing oil pastel, you have potential.

[Yusuke]

Welcome, Xina.
This is really nice painting. You already know how to handle OPs in this great first painting.

[robertsloan2]

Xina, this is beautiful! I agree with Pat that a little more distinction between the back of the back apple and the shadowed back of the glass bowl would help -- perhaps just a line of reflected cool light would be enough to distinguish it.

The other thing I can see is -- remember Still Life the Colourful Way, where Charlie got us dividing the background flat area into quadrants, then making it warmest toward the front on the side with the light, cooler as it recedes, cooler toward the side away from the light and coolest in the quadrant farthest back on the shadow side? If you do that and just scumble in a little more color into the background flat table in that "quadrant" arrangement, I think it'll make the table lay down flat and the objects pop up even more three dimensionally.

It took me about fifteen minutes to think of something helpful to say that Pat hadn't already said because this is magnificent. To the point where if I were browsing an art show and saw it framed within my budget this might be the one I took home. I would love to see you develop it as an 8 x 8" painting. It's wonderful.

What brand or brands of oil pastels are you using? I agree the white flecks do look nice and give it some sparkle. It would lose some of its luminous brightness if it got blended down completely to get rid of them. That can be fun too but it's a different style.

[christinemlr]

Thank you all for your comments and Pat and Robert thank you for your advice.

I agree about getting some distinction on that back apple and Robert you've helped me see how I could do that, and i definitely agree about using the 'quadrant' tool to help with 3 dimension. I did remeber that, but thought i better stop as I was starting to create mud. Plus time was up.

Pat,I don't know about putting in a darker background, because then I would have to change the glass. I do see how that would give it more drama though. Perhaps I should try another one on a different background.

Robert, this is my 24 Sennelier still life set. I was interested to see if I could get that moss green and yellow ochre to work as yellow - and it did, though not quite as bright as showing here.

Xina

[Pat Isaac]

That's true, Xina, as the glass would then reflect the table color....

Pat

[Scarefishcrow]

Hi, Xina, great start, IMHO. Pat and Robert have given you some suggestions, but for a first go with OP looks like a really good start for you, at least to me!

It is interesting you mention the "white flecks". Those become the focust of much debate among OP artists. Some, especially John Eliott in his book on OP, absolutely love them and, in fact, consider them to be one of the great things about OP, how it leave that "sparkle" of the support showing though.

Others just as adamantly despise them and want to cover each and every one of them with OP.

Same with the texture of some papers. Some people like the texture showing through and the effect it gives, others don't.

All a matter of personal taste and what appeals to you. I tend to like them and the "broken color" effect they contribute, but that's my personal opinion. In some pieces it might be they would detract. No absolutes around here, just plenty of generalities and always other viewpoints. That's what makes this so great. We get to look through lots of other peoples eyes and get a sense of how they see the same things we are looking at, but interpret them differently.

Glad you are excited about your art! Look forward to seeing more!

Bill