Pasture Light

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Comment by kevin miller on September 15, 2015 at 12:45

Hello Michael,

This critique is much appreciated and there is no reason to ever apologize for a critique. Making mistakes and receiving good critiques are really the only way to learn.  Funny thing is, I was looking at the sketch again and I felt that I should be doing something with the background to create a sense of depth.  Usually, for me anyway, that would entail creating a lighter/ grayer/ more blue tinted hues but I was so focused on capturing the three value shapes (dark, mid, light) that I could not address these other nuances.  While I am learning this plein air, I have realized I need to focus on dealing with one specific aspect so I don''t blow the whole thing by trying to do it all.

With that said, as I sat looking at the sketch, I thought that if I took the tree canopies of the background and made these more grey and kept the foreground canopies more saturated, I would possibly accomplish the depth I thought lacking.  I think if I play with this I may be able to address the salient points you are making regarding the background.  Although I could not pick this up on location, I think by working through this revision in studio, I may be able to learn how to better manipulate this when painting plein air.  Maybe I am wrong but I need to try something.

Your comments on the trees is also spot on as well.  I knew I would be in trouble with these but at least I tried to produce sense of a direction of a light source and I did try to (unsuccessfully)  vary the tree trunk widths.

The last thing I will add, I am not real happy with the strong horizontal line of the foreground field shape.  I could have varied that a bit in some way.  Another thing to take a look at in my revision. 

So I wrote all of this before looking at your painting as I wanted to see if my instinct and reactions within my critical self evaluation  were somewhat correct.   I was very pleased when I saw your painting because I think what I was describing fits with what is needed (and what you were explaining)  It is one thing to know but another thing to do so let's see what happens.  I really like that painting, by the way.  It very clearly shows what you were explaining and I think I can see some potential improvement possibilities in my study.

Thanks again and you should put on a workshop some day.

Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 14, 2015 at 16:16

Hi Kevin.  I decided to comment on your painting here instead of VAA.  Anyway, I agree with Ann ..great bold brushwork.  The vertical format fits perfectly with the scene. Now, put your seat belt on:  Composition:  You have set up repetition with your trees ..going for rhythm of line ...but with  repetition, you need variety ..variety in texture, size, value, color, temperature, etc.  The negative shapes between the trees are  the same intervals as well as not interesting enough.  The shape of your foreground is an uninteresting rectangle of one color and one value.  Your composition lacks  depth ..the trees lead us left to right instead of front to back.  That is because, the base of your trees are lining up horizontally.  If your baseline was varied for each tree, then you would have a better sense of depth ..that there is a tree in the front plane, another behind that, etc.  Now, your foreground sits up like a wall because you have not indicated anything that would say "recession"  In order for that field to flatten out and go back into space, we need cooler/grayer colors in the far plane ..darker,  and more saturated colors in the front.  The illusion of depth also requires a change in edges, direction of brushwork, size of brush marks, and  some kind of value or color gradation.  Gradation is also needed in your background and tree trunks ..they are darker and warmer at the bottom and cooler (sky reflection) at the top.  The straight line that separates the ground and background mass is uninteresting ..when you see something like that in nature, change it to a more interesting line consisting of ins and outs ..that will also give you the illusion of more depth ..trees behind trees.  You are lacking a focal point ..because all of your contrasts are the same ..your lights, darks, edges, textures, etc. are all the same.  You want just one thing to be the lightest light, darkest dark, most intense color, sharpest edge, most texture ...all at the focal point.  Then the rest of your values will fall between those parameters.  This is where you lack the far music.  Take a look at my painting, "Through White Pines".  Note how I have subordinated those trees on the left.  BTW, everybody ..Kevin is a friend of mine on VAA and he is highly motivated to learn ..so I am piling on for a reason.  But anyway, that's it for now ..there are few other things like sky hole values and edges, using more Red/purple (greens compliment), creating some shadows to reinforce the illusion of light, etc.

Comment by kevin miller on September 14, 2015 at 15:20

Thank you Ann!  On hind sight, I should have one done one group of trees and worked with a "L" composition.  I'm still learning this plein air so it is hard for me to edit what I see working "live"  Richard makes it look way to easy in his videos.

Comment by Ann Turner on September 14, 2015 at 12:47

Great bold brush !