Structured Crit; WIP: There's Gold in the Hills

[CaKatt]

MY IMAGE(S):




GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Structured Crit; WIP: There's Gold in the Hills
Year Created:
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Dimension: 16"x22"
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
Bush in foreground right is not finished, only suggested. Need some fresh eyes on this one. I am starting to futz without a clear direction. Plan to go back over wildflower field in foreground and add texture.

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
Do the middle ground bank of trees and bushes have too much contrast or are they too dark? Do they form too much of a wall to the composition? (Ugh, what would I do about that?)
Do the wildflowers vary enough as the distance increases? Any other comments/observations?

[CaKatt]

Anybody (dy)...out (out)...there (ere)?

[CaKatt]

*crickets*

[La_]

i think you've got an overall marvelous bunch of stuff going on here ... good distance, nice comp and no, the row of bushes doesn't create too dominant a wall.

i've been back and looked at this a few times ... the blue/yellow combination jars me and i've not been able to become comfortable with it ... this is quite subjective tho as when i converted it to greyscale to check the values ... they're pretty bang on ... for a soft, romantic(ish) piece ... room (always) to push the depth of values, depending on what you're ultimately after ...

the grey scale for your considerations


la

[CaKatt]

La, Thanks for taking the time to post. I appreciate it.
I hadn't even considered a grey scale. Seems like sometimes these things get lost in our brains. Interesting that you find the blue and yellow jarring. We are so used to our wildflowers blooming in that particular combination that I hadn't thought of it that way. I can see what you mean though.
Does anyone else see the blue and yellow combination as too jarring or garish?

[song_bird]

Hi Katt, this forum seems to be rather inactive. Maybe have your piece moved over to Open Critique?

Yes I, too, find the yellow & blue jarring and would tone that aspect down if it were mine. I thought maybe it was the photograph exaggerating their brightness. The strong V shape of the 'gully' could also be less pointed. Feels a little unnatural, imo. The V of the low rub of shrubs bothers me.

Lovely setting and handling of the ground cover and trees. Overall your painting has a very nice feel and happy tranquility about it.

[Polygon]

I don't find the yellow/blue too garish, although it does contrast with the subdued nature of the greens in the rest of the scene, but I think it does so authentically from my experiences with wildflowers. I find the contrast of the blue and yellow against each other provides interest even though the values may be similar.

The thing that "bugs" me about this is that bush in the foreground, maybe it's too well-located composition-theory-wise, or maybe it's too uniform in shape. It doesn't bother me much though, if I wasn't looking at it with a critical eye I'd be fine with it. You said you were still working on that though anyway.

I like the yellow on the tops of the middleground trees, but the time of day strikes me as more mid-day due to no long shadows, and the season seems more late-spring early-summer due to the nature of the wildflowers (I'm not familiar with lots of blue ones in fall), so I'm not sure if something could be off there, as the treetops give me more of a late-summer feel. I could be wrong though, your neck of the woods might have blue flowers in that season.

I don't find your middleground trees too dark or too wall-like, you have variety in the heights of the trees that lets you through to the mountains. I think your flowers recede nicely too.

It's a very nice painting.

[CaKatt]

Thanks for the feedback. I think this is going to be a painting that sits on the easel for a bit while I work some of the bugs out.
I agree song bird that the 'V' is too strong. It could work better if it were more subtle. I do think I will be working with the foreground bush also.
You have given me much to consider. Thank you.

[henrik]

Some observations;
to me most of the blue looks a bit decaled, I get cloud associations - something blue floating on top of the green/yellow grass (upper left side looks best wrt. to this). Hard to say if it is "garish" or not - the importance is that the palette is integrated - the parts are parts of a whole / integrated environment. I think you can work on that.

The shape of the hill is accentuated by the bright yellow, and to me the eye is strongly pullet towards the distant trees - there is just nothing of interest there. Main point of interest then becomes the bright yellow patch...

OTOH; it is very hard to judge colors from a photo - it may read differently in real life...

If this was mine, I would try to work on the blue flower patches closest to the viewer and make them look less solid (integrate some suggestions of green stems etc. just break them up with small dabs of darker grass color)- maybe that is enough.

The bush on the right needs a bit more definition & contrast - that may also help with the point of interest. (As seen in the greyscale - it looks more distant than the trees far away - they have more contrast).

Hope that helps.