Help other artists create better paintings while you learn from others' critiques.
About This Painting
Jess N’ Boots (oil, 28 x 22 inches) is a painting of my granddaughter standing in my hall with other paintings of mine around her.
Betty Bishop
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
www.bettybishop.ca |
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Jess N' Boots is a good start to a fun little painting. I kind of like the way Betty has broken up the background surrounding the figure, but I'd like to see her take a more sophisticated approach to organizing the overall structure of the painting. She needs to create some shapes by using similar values that have nothing to do with the actual shapes of the objects in the painting. For example, since the carpet and that painting on the lower left are already both somewhat darker in value, it would be good to make that entire corner of the painting into an interesting shape by making all of the values in that area more similar, all in the medium to medium-dark range. This shape could even include the pant leg on the left. This darker shape would be balanced by the small darker-valued shape on the upper right.
I also like the way Betty is adopting a fun, stylized approach to painting. It seems perfectly suited for a painting about a young person. Since she's already playing with style and subject, why not push it further and play with the color more? Maybe put in some brighter hues in some areas, particularly in and around the focal point. With a style this far from realism, you don't need to use "realistic" colors.
Betty, I think you're onto something here. Just push it farther and you'll have a really exciting painting.
Sandy David
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Given that this artist is not following some of the more basic fundamentals of drawing, I'm assuming that she is deliberately painting in a childlike manner. I think she should look for ways to make that more obvious, more stylized so that we really understand her intentions.
Erlene Flowers
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About This Painting
I am an Egyptian oil painter. I live in Alexandria. It will be an honor to me for your readers to critique my image, The Whistling Farmer, so I may learn more and more. I am thanking you in anticipation of your cooperation.
Mohamed Malawany |
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Dear Mohamed,
Your subject, Whistling Farmer, is a happy concept, so I thought that perhaps it would be well served to brighten it up a bit, giving it the feel of the joy in the music. Whites usually are not white when you paint. There is always a little color mixed into them. In your painting I have really almost eliminated all the white whites. I especially eliminated the background whites so that they would not be in competition with his shirt. What I have done with your painting would be only one of many ways that you could unify and improve this painting. Everything that I have done was executed in photoshop, so it is just an idea of how it might look if you go back into it to bring out its joy.
I worked on the hands giving them more structure and shape. This was done with color. You will notice a variety of color tones which help identify the fingers and show where light and shadow hits them. The face needed a bit of structure also, mostly so that you could tell more easily where the eyes, chin, and nose were located. So I brightened up some of the dark areas. Again defined them more with color and value than with line.
The horn coming out of the farmers mouth was a bit lost, so that is also brightened and defined. I am not familiar with this instrument's shape so I just brightened up the lower end of it, keeping the unity of color for the end of the instrument and again eliminating the white white.
I put dark colors next to the light colors around the head and the body and also put light colors next to the darker areas of head and body. This dark against light or light against dark helped those areas be seen and move forward away from the background. I also put cool colors on the top of the head and the shoulders. Cool is the kind of light that would be happening there due to atmosphere. All shadows in the clothing was done with color value rather than line. I hope that what I have done in photoshop to your painting will help you understand a bit more about painting. I am honored to be allowed to do this critique.
Sincerely,
Margé Drew
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Giving Feedback
Give this artist some constructive feedback using any of the following talking points: |
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• Shape
• Line
• Scale
• Value
• Color
• Direction
• Texture |
• Harmony
• Dominance
• Repetition
• Balance
• Contrast
• Variation
• Unity |
• Drawing
• Focal Point
• Mood
• Message
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• A high-quality, low-resolution (72 ppi) jpeg of the painting you want to have critiqued, at a size of about 4 x 6 inches
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