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  • #1544448
    Mahjah59
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        Acrylic on canvas board

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        #1544450
        Mahjah59
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            I feel like it’s been cropped on posting. Just a bit.

            #1544460

            I noticed the horizontal brush strokes in the sea, Normally the ripples would follow the shape of the bay.

            Doug


            We must leave our mark on this world

            #1544466
            MarkSzy
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                Thank you for posting this. What is the size of the painting, and the medium; oil or acrylic?

                Also, do you want a critique on anything in particular?

                all the best,

                Mark

                Painting was easy until I learned how.

                #1544478
                Mahjah59
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                    Thank you Doug. I have some going in a different direction along the shoreline. I’m not sure where you think they should be changed.

                     

                    Hi Mark. Painting is 9 x 12” acrylic on canvas board. General critique would be appreciated.

                    #1544507
                    MarkSzy
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                        Mahjah59, you have done some things really well. Congratulations!

                        A few of the things I think are working…

                        • Warm vs Cool is a very prominent feature of this painting. Many classic paintings also use this color design.
                        • Sky and clouds are believable. The clouds seem to be suspended above the viewer and aren’t so heavy as to look as if they couldn’t be floating.
                        • There is a sky vault – that is it looks as if the sky arches over the top of the viewer rather than a flat plane in the back of the painting. Cool.
                        • Glad to see the variance in the greens. Looks like different tree species because of that. It was a nice opportunity for variety and you took advantage of that.

                        There are also some opportunities in this piece too. In no particular order…

                        • There is a lack of atmospheric perspective in this piece.
                        • Water is too dark for what the sky is doing.
                        • No light source (direction of light changes depending upon where you’re looking)
                        • All edges are equally harsh once you move out of the sky. A variety of stronger and lost edges would have been helpful.
                        • Lost opportunity for color in the foreground. The colors could have been varied a LOT here to grab interest.
                        • Beak on the headland is way too pronounced. Common design error though.
                        • No Notan contained within the painting. All the lights are in the sky, there is no interesting pattern of light and dark.

                        Okay… I will delve into some of the opportunities here.

                        Lack of atmospheric (also known as aerial) perspective.  This is

                        “The expression of space by changes and gradations of color distinctness and hue. The first fact is that the hue, shade, or cast of any color mass is separable from its weight or value.

                        I have, let us say three skeins of colored yarn, all of them an olive green: a light olive green, medium olive green, and dark olive green. In other words, these skeins of yarn differ only in value and not in color.  I have three other skeins of yarn: one a medium-dark green, another a medium-dark red, and another a medium-dark purple; these skeins of yarn differ only in hue, but not in value.

                        And I have three other skeins: one a light green, another a medium-dark red, and another a dark purple; these skeins differ in value and hue.

                        A value-and-hue transition would be an instance of the medium-dark red blending gradually into the dark purple.

                        A value transition is most obvious in the blending of the light olive green into the dark olive green.

                        Having now a firm idea about the difference between value and color gradations, let us take up … and analyze just what is taking place within these masses as they recede from the eye. This is to be our prime means of creating a sense of space and air….

                        There is one rule governing color gradations, and that is: ALL COLORS BECOME COOLER AS THEY RECEDE FROM THE EYE, EXCEPT WHITE.  A cool color is one which has a preponderance of blue in its makeup; pure blue being, of course, the coldest.

                        ………

                        One of the most important truths bearing upon receding color out-of-doors is this; it is that the yellow fades out of a landscape as it recedes from the foreground.  This means not only yellow itself, but the yellow in all mixtures, such as brown, warm red, orange, etc. Our green for example, will range from a sappy yellow-green in the foreground to quite a cool green in the middle distance and gradually diminish in its yellowness as it goes farther back, until it turns to a faint emerald in the distance; and this emerald will become a faint greenish-blue at the horizon. Again, it is the yellow that fades out of the receding planes. As the yellow fades out, the violets and the blues seem to increase in intensity.”

                        Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting, Chapter 6, pp. 63, 64.

                        The information above is brilliant. A real game changer in painting once you understand all of the nuance it contains. It absolutely changed my understanding on how to create distance in a painting.

                        Next two items, The some of the low waves will reflect the sky. Especially some of the backs of the waves which reflect the sky near the horizon and just above.  No light source… shadows aren’t consistent within the piece. Sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left.

                        Lost color opportunities in the foreground. Here, you could have played with the color a LOT. There would be all sorts of different grays to explore here. These colors should be more intense than the colors in the cliffs in the background. The shadows would be more intense in the foreground and the brights more intense in the foreground as well.

                        Varying the edges… anywhere bright meets dark, there will be a glare along the edge where the light is spilling over the top, these edges will be soft. This is true when you look at a scene in its entirety, not as a collection of separate little scenes. When everything is equally sharp, your eye jumps from thing to thing to thing, and they all are of the same importance, rather than drawing the eye to little moments and giving the eye a path around the painting.

                        Beak in the painting. The distant headland becomes a thrusting beak shape. Looks like a sharpened stick. These beak shapes are hard to counterbalance the thrusting jagged shape elsewhere in the painting. They are a VERY powerful shape and not only draw the eye, but also HOLD the eye at a particular part of the painting. The eye stops exploring elsewhere and just sits here. It’s a giant arrow pointing out the edge of the painting. Basically it says look here then leave. I will give a bit of a hint on how to de-emphasize the beak shape.

                        Notan is the Darks and Lights in harmonic relations. The masses of light and dark can convey an impression of beauty entirely independent of meaning. It is the design of light and dark. Most all of the values in this painting are in the mid range. There isn’t a design of lights and darks and thus it loses some opportunities for energy. There is little interest in the foreground also known as the footlights. The eye jumps right into the background. A large portion of the painting is skipped right over.

                        Below is a couple of drawings to show one possible design change. The first of the designs is how it is currently, and the second is a suggestion on how to mitigate the beak and increase the light and darks in the painting.

                        And now for the design suggestion.

                        I have only spent a few minutes on these, but I increased the interest in the foreground. Also a pattern of lights and darks has been established over, under, around, and through the beak area to camouflage its existence. The shape of the beak has been subordinated to a value structure that arrays lights and darks in shapes unrelated to its beakish outline. Darkening a few passages in the sky to direct attention away from the beak are will help. More contrast and detail added to other areas of the painting helps to win your eye to another part of the picture. I also increased the distance of the beak from the edge of the painting. The closer a beak is to the opposite side of the canvas, the harder it is for the viewer to circumnavigate it. A good clear passageway over there will help. The reflections in the water and the cheesy little sailboat on the left add vertical shapes to the area to overcome the thrusting knife like shape of the offending beak. The boat crosses and shorts the hard line at its base, de-emphasizing the hard line even more.

                        Hopefully, all this info helps.

                        All the best,

                        Mark

                        Painting was easy until I learned how.

                        #1544553
                        Mahjah59
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                            Thank you Mark, appreciate all the assistance. Very helpful as always.

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