Mud puddle? - Page 2

**Suetois** · #16 08-19-2012, 04:13 PM

Thanks, Larry. I've noticed that decal look in my paintings. The tree trunk has the same problem. I've been trying to soften the edges, but I'm having trouble being subtle enough. My "softening" winds up looking more like smearing.

I've been trying to get color into my shadows on previous paintings, and I've been trying to see it outdoors. As I've commented before on previous threads, I love the look when other artists do it--but I just can't see it. Even when I'm outdoors and squinting and peering as hard as I can (which I have been doing for a couple of years now since that's what more experienced artists have suggested), I just see a darker shade of green. It's very frustrating. I keep thinking it will come with experience. I think what happens is that preconceived notions of what something looks like prevent one from seeing a thing as it really is. Sort of the way many people can't draw a hand realistically because they have a symbol for a hand that's been how they draw it since they were children. They can look right at a real hand, and still draw something that looks like a grade-school drawing. I think I'm doing something similar with shadow colors. I don't see them because I don't expect them to be there. I haven't trained myself to see them. My brain interprets the real color which should have a blue or purple cast as simply a dark green. I literally have to learn to see it accurately.

Anyway. I appreciate your advice. I'll try to apply it. Right now the painting has a blandness--a sameness of color--that ought to improve if I can implement what you're telling me.

Sue

**Suetois** · #17 08-19-2012, 05:51 PM

Another try. I tried to get color regression going in the background, and I put a little sky color into the trail. However, I also messed up the value situation again. Everything in the background is just gray in B/W. Also, my soft edges are all fuzzy. They look more out of focus than anything else. I'm not sure, overall, that this is an improvement. I do like the additional colors. They liven things up a bit.

Sue

Marilyn M · #18 08-19-2012, 10:36 PM

work on the HARD EDGES in the background

LarrySeiler · #19 08-19-2012, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suetois

Another try. I tried to get color regression going in the background, and I put a little sky color into the trail. However, I also messed up the value situation again. Everything in the background is just gray in B/W. Also, my soft edges are all fuzzy. They look more out of focus than anything else. I'm not sure, overall, that this is an improvement. I do like the additional colors. They liven things up a bit.

Sue

strikes me here as you are more painting air here...that's the idea!!!

Painting from photos is tricky. Painting outdoors a lot I think helps to paint from photos better, knowing what it is that photos do not reveal, tend to get wrong...but, if you can think less that you are painting things...and more that you are painting the color of light, air...atmosphere that things are enveloped in...

Lucy12 · #20 08-20-2012, 12:40 AM

Sue this is really looking nice! With so much attention given to the trail your tree is getting no love, beautiful foliage and roots!

**Suetois** · #21 08-20-2012, 02:28 PM

Thanks for commenting, Marilyn. I have an awful time with softening edges and knowing which edges to soften in the first place. It's one of the things I'm trying to learn.

Thanks, Larry. I've kind of been trying to approach improving on an incremental basis--one thing at a time and then try to remember what I've learned for the next painting. You've presented quite a lot of challenges all at once, so I don't know how that's going to go. I do appreciate the link to your post about color regression. I printed it out for future reference.

I actually think I have too many soft edges or maybe soft edges that are too fuzzy in the background now. I know you said "push the illusion of depth," but I think I overdid it. At the same time, I feel that I need to soften some, but not all, of the edges of the tree trunk. Balance. Back to the proverbial drawing board.

I'm certain that painting outside would be an excellent learning experience for me, but I'm deterred by mosquitoes in the warm months. I spent less than 10 minutes photographing a small waterfall recently--and picked up 14 mosquito bites--all of which scarred. Meanwhile, my husband was out there for much longer and didn't get a single bite. I think I have an "All You Can Eat Buffet" sign AFA the little pests are concerned. Even bug spray won't keep them entirely away.

Then school is in session during the cool/cold months and I have no time to paint a lot. We have three sons with high-functioning autism who have behavioral issues that require a lot of time interfacing with the high school. We also have two kids in community college this year--classes start on Wednesday--and neither one has a driver's license, so I'm going to be tied up all day, every day, running from one place to another. I get stressed out to the point that I don't accomplish anything else. I'm already dreading it and resenting that it eats up so much of my time.

Gack! I'm rambling again.

Lucy, thanks for commenting on the tree. I've been working on branches, bark, and foliage for months now, so it's nice to know that it's coming along. Of course it helps that this particular tree has smooth bark and a lot of moss growing on it.

Sue

tj84 · #22 08-20-2012, 05:32 PM

It seems like that big tree would be casting some shadows on the trail. depending on the sun angle.
purples/bluish tones make good shadow colors

Wayne Gaudon · #23 08-21-2012, 02:34 AM

Hi Sue .. I remember the photo from way back when

I think you have made some improvements on the piece.

I'm no expert but for me, I don't get a real strong indication of the direction of light. To control the light direction more one can make use of warms against colds as well as value. The big tree doesn't have any volume and looks rather flat as if it were a paste in. The reason, I think, is that the values are very similar all over. 3D = light, middle, dark pertaining to the sides and middle. Think cube for volume. As for edges, lost and broken edges work wonderful in and around soft edges.

JEFrantz · #24 08-21-2012, 07:29 AM

Sue - I think this is coming along beautifully. I love this tree! and you're really getting the distance thing down well, actually. Things do tend to get a little blurred and fuzzy, as it moves off into the distance. Keep at it!

tuzigoot · #25 08-21-2012, 12:48 PM

I do like this, and the improvements you've made are remarkable. I was happy to read Bill Martin's suggestion about the path being too flat, as that was my take also. (Finally learning a few things...)
Thanks for sharing your path, so to speak...

**Suetois** · #26 08-21-2012, 05:58 PM

I worked on this more today. I tried to make several improvements. Most significantly, I tried to get the light to appear to have a single direction. To do that, I changed the side of the trail that's in the light. I also added more light and modeling to the tree trunk--which made an improvement IMO. Thanks, Wayne. In the process I over-brightened the rock's on the left. They're too white now I think. Also, I lost some definition in the mid ground on the right side of the trail. I kind of lost control of the values in the process of trying to get the colors right. Finally, tj84, I just couldn't figure out how to make the shadow of the tree work out while maintaining all the various colors in the rocks and trail. I know they need to be pushed a little toward a blue or purple color where the shadow falls and there should be patches of light where the colors are warmer, but I just couldn't actually *do* it.

All in all, though, I really like how far this painting has come from where it was when I started. I've learned a lot from this one thanks to all the detailed and helpful comments.

This is probably the last time I'll update this although it still does need a little work. My non-driving, live-at-home kids start college again tomorrow. Between the two of them I am going to be spending many hours in the car and at the campus. I'm also looking at some school meetings involved in getting one of the kids with Asperger's back into the public school system after homeschooling him for a couple of years, as well as the usual round of therapist, medical, and pharmacy stuff.

I just don't see how I'll have much time or energy to paint, which is *not* a good thing. I love the time I spend painting. I'll be back if I do work on something new, though. Plus, I usually can find time to look and sometimes comment on other people's work.

Thanks again for all your kind comments and the help you've given me this summer. I truly appreciate it.

Sue

**Flycatcher10** · #27 08-22-2012, 08:43 AM

Sorry I've been missing from here for a while or I would have commented earlier.

I've enjoyed reading through this post and seeing the interesting transformations your scene went through. Your last re-work is well done with the changes noticeable.

The scene reads better and is inviting to the viewer. It does make me want to stay a while and wonderful what's up the path a ways.

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