Hawfinch - in "Structured Critiques Forum" please

[macan]

MY IMAGE(S):




GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Hawfinch
Year Created: 2012
Medium: Oil
Surface: Wood
Dimension: 8" x 9.5"
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:

I tried to post this picture in the "Structured Critiques Forum", which didn't work. Can you please change that, if possible?


This is a small oil painting I did after a photo my husband took of me holding a Hawfinch.

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
I just wanted to know what you think about the composition and of course the painting itself. And sure I wanted to know, what I can change too.

[Debzy]

Very nice work, lovely use of browns and golds. ! Debs. =))

[macan]

Thank you very much

I'm still hoping someone can move my posting to the "Structured Critiques Forum", where I wanted to show my picture.
Or is it possible to show it in the oil painting forum, too?

Andrea

[DECiNERGY]

YEP, you could make a x-post in OilPainting-Forum too ... - what i know !?!

There, we are happy to see THAT ... ;-)

[cem]

Wonderfully done. The hands are exquisite, and so is the bird!

[AllisonR]

The lack of unity between foreground and background bothers me tremendously. It looks like you had a sweet photo (big hand, small bird), which you then did a hard clipping path in photoshop and made all the rest solid black. Then you printed it and made a direct and literal painting of that. Due to the harsh treatment - hard line between foreground and background, harsh beak shadow... I think the painting does not work. I would soften the edge to the background and make it dark colors, but not solid, all over black. And soften the beak shadow. Then your painting will shine a lot more.

[she1122]

Not much is going on in Structured Critiques , so even if you got transferred there, doesn't mean you will get much help. You will probably get more comments here .

[song_bird]

You've done a fantastic job with the bird and with the hands. The composition bothers me. I think it looks better with the top cropped. I would also lose some of the edges. I guess the black background doesn't make much sense to me so is also something I would adjust. Maybe some sparkle to his eye.

Very skillfully done!

[macan]

Didn't have a look here inside for a while...

First of all: Thank you all for your comments It hopefully helps me to avoid mistakes at my next paintings. After all I'm not happy with the composition, too. Too much background over that bird.

Mostly I'm having problems with taking photos of my paintings. The background of this one isn't really that black. As there was always an ugly reflection in the photo, I actually worked at the background of the photo with photoshop. That was the biggest mistake I made. And I also darkend it too much. The original painting isn't that dark. Except the dark part underneath the beak, it's really black

Andrea

[Yokovich]

I agree with the other posters, that the background is jarringly black. You've mentioned in your newest post that it really is not that black...so in the future, try to upload a photo that is most like your results in order to get useful feedback.
The trouble is the background and the area beneath the beak are the same 100% black and those areas garner a lot of attention, distracting from the rest of the good work you've done. The bird is great, but that black-black under the beak almost reads as a black hole.
The hands are well executed, except the thumbnail seems to be painted in a similar way (color) as the flesh..and because of that it seems a bit "wrong". The whole painting could benefit from more varied edges instead of hard edges. On the plus side, it is clear to see you have a great grasp (pun intended) of beautiful shapes and good color sense too. It's wise to paint and draw from life, instead of exclusively from photos, so that you have a sound understanding of how light affects objects that it falls upon. IMHO, instead of trying to "fix" this painting, you should consider it largely a success and move on to the next.