landscape study needs critique

[ann chavez]

recently got back into painting after a hiatus of a few months. painted several landscape studies, and would love critique. this one annoys me most , so i'm posting it first.

calf creek canyon
oil on matboard, approx. 5" x 7".


thank you for any help.

[jennaboo88]

Great to see you're painting again, Ann. I rather like this piece. It's serene and gentle. As far as C&C, it depends on what you want from this. If going for realism, the colors seem a bit too pastel and light. Especially in the foreground, where the colors would be the most vibriant. Some softening of detail toward the background will give the piece some more depth and give a feel of distance. Aside from those things, I really like this piece. Great work! Keep painting.

[tuzigoot]

Ann, can you give us some help? Are we standing on the edge of the canyon looking down to the creek? For me, it's unclear what the blue is - if it's water, wouldn't it be reflecting more of the color of the sky or perhaps the canyon walls? Also contributing to the ambiguity is, imo, that the shadows on the cliff are the same color as what I'm seeing as the water. I do like the top half of this, btw.

[rugman]

I wonder if your overall value relationships are off? When I have trouble with this kind of thing, I always go back to Carlsons guide to landscape painting.

Generally: sky is lightest value, flat land next lightest, slanted land (mountains) darker than flat land, and upright things the darkest (like trees, cliffs etc. You probably know this already. Always exceptions, but gets me back to a solid starting point again.

A three or four value thunbnail sketch of largest value masses could help too.

Hope this helps a bit, I can see a great painting from this study.

[Donald_Smith]

Got a reference photo? or is this done from your imagination? What is the subject or focal area?

Donald

[ann chavez]

thank you for your time and effort.

Jenna--the actual scene was indeed pastel-ish in the foreground, so i guess i need to lighten the background? yes, one of the things that really bothers me is the detail all over the place in this piece; but i guess i don't know where it should be softened. it seems to be a 'way-too-busy painting! maybe i bit off too much of the scene to chew at once?

Linda--we are standing near the edge of the canyon, but the blue is the shadow of a tree which is not within the area of the composition. so i think maybe the shadow should not be in the picture, either, right? it seems really distracting and unnecessary, but i was just painting what i saw! and i kinda liked the drama of the shadow form, but now i see that it's confusing.

Ron--the values are similar to what was there, but i do recall having read that we should never use the darkest values in a painting. in fact, this version of this piece is after i'd tried to lighten the dark values i'd had on there (thus the blue shadows!). carlson's book (and the rest of the meter-high stack of painting books i have and have read!) just confuses me. i haven't looked at this in grayscale, but i think it would help, to see what you're saying. i'll do that!

Donald--this was plein air. the subject is the scene. ("focal area" is another concept that i have not grasped. i've wanted to start a thread addressing "focal area"/coi--with my particular questions about it--but i don't even know where to start: is the coi the point at which viewers are to land their eyes on the painting? that is, is it what we want a viewer to look at first? or to look at most? or to like most? etc. i don't get it . . . ).

thanks again for all comments.

[Donald_Smith]

I think a better question would be... "What was your concept for the painting?" What was it that attracted you to this scene? What was it about the scene that screamed "PAINT ME!?"

Did you take a photo of the scene?

Thanks,
Donald

[ann chavez]

ah! gotcha! i think it was the chasm that's almost indiscernible that excited me about this scene. that would be between the long blue streak (which i already painted out yesterday) and the rocks with the little wormy-shadows.

no, no photo.

thank you, Donald.

[Donald_Smith]

Okay! PA by nature isn't a finished painting, but is used as a reference to paint a larger, better painting. Since this is a PA, if you don't mind, lets go through one process (there are as many processes as there are artists, but eventually some will be very similar) and plan improvements and hopefully learn how to improve future paintings, even PA as well. Others are welcome to jump in and give their thoughts. It's finding tidbits in different places that we like to use that creates our voice naturally.

This will require some homework on your part...

1) Draw several outline sketches of your scene. I'm talking 4x6" or smaller. The goal here is to come up with a sketch that emphasis the area you were attracted to. In this case, that is your focal area.

2) come up with no more than 3 words to describe your focal area. This will be your concept. I use only three words because any longer and you may forget it. Keep it simple, short and sweet, and while you're planning the rest of the painting, you wont forget it. If you need examples, please ask.

Time for work, so I gotta go. I'm not done...

Donald

[ann chavez]

do you mean that i should draw sketches on site? or now?

looking forward to more of your comments, Donald. thank you.

[Donald_Smith]

If the scene is local to you and you can do it on site, then that would be great. If not, you'll have to look at your painting and work from it and from memory. Pick the two you like best, scan them and let me see them. I'm just taking your through the creation process that I like to use. Other artists have other methods, and these steps may not work for you. I find that a lot of artists just sit down and start painting. Richard Schmid can do that and come away with a great PA. I can not. I must force myself to stop. Look at the scene. Come up with my concept. Take the time to draw 3 or 4 outline drawings of the scene. No details, no larger than 4x6", and these are done fast. 5 minutes max per drawing. Then I work on a value structure using the outline drawing I like the best. These are called Notans, and I use a couple of grays, and a black to make 2 to 4 value notans that are in the same format as the canvas, but these are very small, 1" x 1x5" or what ever the ratio is. Then I try to transfer it all to the canvas and start painting, while maintaining the value structure and the composition.

Jack White says "Proper Planning Prevents Pitiful Performance."

It really pays off for me to stop and take 15 to 30 minutes and really plan my paintings before I put brush to canvas. There is more to the process, but I don't want to over whelm you. We can take it step by step if you are interested in trying to paint it again and see if we can capture your concept for this scene.

Donald

[ann chavez]

donald, i have not been ignoring your post--i've been working in one of the galleries that sells my stuff and we went on vacation (unfortunately, in the opposite direction from where i did this plein air painting).

i've actually lost interest in this particular piece--i did a bit of work on it after i posted it here, and now i've moved on.

i usually do plein airs as final paintings, not as studies for studio work. these little ones i did in may were basically practice pieces--i don't intend to paint them larger. just working on composition, brushstrokes, and values (which are the bane of my artistic existence! ).

"notans" do not seem to be useful to me--mine seem to be a waste of outdoor time, although i know that most plein-air painters do make value sketches before beginning to paint. i may soon experiment again with working that way--with preliminary value sketches--but i get really impatient to get to the color!

thank you for your time; i appreciate your advice and suggestions.

[Donald_Smith]

Ann,

You have to do what works best for you. Sometimes I'm cursed with an overly developed since of helpfullness when it isn't wanted or needed..

I checked out your webpage. You have some very beautiful paintings. Keep up the great work.

Donald