chinamans bluff painting workshop 2

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Comment by Richard Robinson on October 6, 2011 at 18:42

I just make it a rule never to run any strong design lines (like the edge of a river) off the corner of the canvas. Maybe it's just me though.

Comment by Dan Lancaster-Kelly on October 6, 2011 at 16:58

Well done Susie, great feed back R quesstion, can the river come out of the corners or only out the side of the painting thanks 

Comment by susie gregory on October 5, 2011 at 23:40

what blows me away is the fact that we're chatting with people from all over the world!!!!!  good on ya, richard, for organizing this!  - so much fun!!!!

Comment by Richard Robinson on October 5, 2011 at 15:20

:-) That's what I really love about this workshop guys - it gives us a chance to reach out from our studios (whatever that may be) in some small way and connect with like minds and encourage each other. So good. I love seeing that happening and being part of it. Love it.

Comment by susie gregory on October 5, 2011 at 12:45

thanks sharon...i plan to work on the water and the rocks both as well as the  center of intereset...can't wait to see your painting!!

Comment by Sharon Casavant on October 5, 2011 at 12:22

Great job you two!  I personally would like to see more of the water, than the rocks... :)

Comment by susie gregory on October 5, 2011 at 9:58

gotcha! will do!!

Comment by Richard Robinson on October 5, 2011 at 9:15

:-) Thanks Susie, yes I was thinking about the contrast thing in the centre of interest too, but in this case I thought the whole painting is fairly low key so the contrast could be in the spotlit centre compared to the rest of the painting. It's one way to go anyway - the beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say, so anything goes but that's my take on it.

Personally I'd lighten the water and also continue that foreground 'shadow' onto the rocks.

 

Thanks I got your large image. When you upload a new image here please don't replace this one otherwise the critique won't make any sense - just add a new image. Ta.

 

Comment by susie gregory on October 5, 2011 at 6:17

wow!!  thank you richard!! you've given me so much to think about!  - i've always gone on the assumption that the center of interest should have your lightest light against your darkest dark..hence the light and dark contrast in the far trees.  so you're saying that i should lighten the whole area?- i guess things do lighten up as they recede, right?..i didn't intend to place a shadow in the foreground water - only trying to have the water closer to the viewer darker - do you think it would be better to put a glaze over the front rocks as you suggested or lighten up the water a tad?  and i know i need to do a better job of delineating foreground rocks...sometimes i think i get in a hurry...i can't wait to get back in there and rework a few areas...mountains, color of the light, rocks, etc.  thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!...i couldn't be more delighted and i appreciate you're being "picky"!!  i'll email you the image - should i send it to your regular email address?..also - how do i go about reposting when i've made some improvements?  will the new image just be addded or replace the first image?...again...i can't thank you enough!! susie 

Comment by Richard Robinson on October 4, 2011 at 18:30

Thanks for your painting Susie, here's a wee critique for you...

 

Design

You've stuck very close to photo which is fairly decently cropped already, though there are two things I would personally like to see changed. The first is that I always try to avoid running strong lines off at the corners of the canvas - I don't particularly know why I'm afraid, but it always seems a little too eye catching too me, but to be fair the top left corner is the best corner to do this in for Western readers if you have to do it. Personally I would raise or lower the line of that mountain in order to miss that corner. 

 

The second thing is the light on the scene. This beautiful curving river leads your eye into the trees and mountains beyond, but I find in your painting the light does not reach a crescendo in that crucial focal area. Instead you've darkened the main copse of trees there and left the ones on the far right lighter which splits the attention between the left and right sides instead of coalescing in the middle. I understand you were delineating one set of trees from another using light and dark which is great, but in this case I personally would have painted that light the other way around. You've also seemingly placed a shadow over the foreground water which is a great way to lead in, but you haven't carried that shadow over onto the rocks which in turn creates a fairly high contrast area which draws the eye instead of pushing the eye onwards which is the usual purpose of a shadowed foreground. That could be changed pretty quickly with a dark glaze if you wanted to.

 

Color

The color overall is pretty good with nice warm/cool variations. I personally would have liked to see a clear distinction between midground and background, which is an element of composition as much as color. To do that you would lighten and cool the mountains. I often find graying the blue sky a little helps to add depth too.

 

The river seems to have gone a little too dark, creating a bit of a hole in the painting. Have a closer look at the multitude of colors present in the river in the photo. (There are even more on site!) 

 

It's getting there, but I don't quite get a convincing sense of the color of the light on the scene, which means some lights are too cool and some too warm. The grasses on the  left for instance could be warmer. I always find it harder getting that right when working from photos.

 

Brushwork

I love the energy in your brushwork - the overall feel is lively and interesting. I also very much like that soft glowing edge you've made in the cradle of the mountains which I think would be even more appealing if the mountains were lightened and subdued some more.

 

You have a nice balance of hard and soft edges, although some of those are not in the right place - like the halftone edge of the grasses on the left for instance which could be softer as could the sharp shadows under the far right trees  and I would like to see a few sharper edges further up river to draw the eye.

 

Realism

From a distance it all looks pretty convincing. On closer inspection some of the drawing seems to have been compromised in the flurry of brushstrokes. The grassy bank on the right has dropped a little which raises the perceived viewpoint a little and may be contributing the slight confusion over the size of objects on that side of the river. (picky eh!?)

 

Some of the key river rocks could have been drawn better and you've missed out most of their reflections which all do help to assert the reality of the water.

You've done a valiant job of reestablishing some value structure in the overexposed clouds, but they could possibly be mistaken for snowy mountains due to their crisp shapes.

 

I would have liked to have seen a few key elements treated with a little finer rendering which often makes more sense of all the other loose brushwork -  the light and shadow upstream, a few crisp rocks in the midground and the grasses on the left.

 

Overall I think it's a pleasing painting which could benefit from some refinements. Nice work.

 

 

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