Seascape, Virgin Island

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Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 12, 2012 at 10:10

You paintings do not look like a "beginner".  I know, there is so much to learn!!! I am always studying it seems.    A solution might have been to take the rock out on the left and  bring the incoming water meandering around? ..There are many solutions.. draw some thumbnail compositional sketches emphasizing ways to move your eye into the painting and toward your focal point.  Study paintings by famous seascape artists (Fredrick Waugh) to see how they handled foreground rocks in their compositions. 

Comment by Cheryl Lipham on September 12, 2012 at 9:21

Michael, thanks for your comments!  The foreground was actually the last area I filled in.  By that time I was really tired of the thing.  And the horizon looks as it is because it was a re-do.  I believe it was Lyndon that let me know the line was off so I proceeded to level it, but like you say, I made it too defined.  And as you probably know, when you go back to re-do something...that sometimes leads to other parts getting changed...like my color of the water!  You are not 'preaching to the choir' here!  I'm just a beginner!  I know I have a long way to go to be able to really do it right.  Now that you mentioned it, it would probably look better if  I change the foreground to something like a pathway curving around to the water area, maybe even making it more of a beach area.  I paint from pictures, so I haven't gotten into rearranging scenes.  I did rearrange one, much to my dismay...the Italian scene that has a villa on the hill with a background of mist.  I added the trees to the right in the foreground..and moved the villa to the left..it was in the middle of the picture. That created problems that I don't think I tackled very well.....that is why I don't recreate scenes!  After I finish my current projects I will work on this one!  Thanks again!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on September 11, 2012 at 3:25

Hi Cheryl, Michael again.  I am looking at your album and just want to say a few things about this painting.  Your complimentary color scheme is very exciting!  You handled the wave very well .. just enough values to show the form .. great!  This is a good painting, but could be better with just a little tweaking.  The rock along the bottom stops you from entering the painting and runs parallel to the bottom of the canvas.  This is an easy fix.  Your rocks are all one value, one hue, and on temperature. Think of leading us front to back with receding planes (value and temp. changes) (I know that I am preaching to the choir here).  Modify the color of the rocks every few inches!  The background sea needs gradation .... it is not laying down flat.  The horizon line is too hard of an edge ..   I decided to talk about this painting because I liked it very much .. it caught my eye immediately while I was looking through your album ... nice job, just a few tweaks.