Heaven's scents

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Comment by Stephanie Burgess on March 24, 2012 at 2:06

Thank you Justie and Susie and I see what you are talking about.  I actually saw that but thought I could get away with it  LOL.  I had a problem with the ones touching the pot.  I actually tried to paint over and enlarge the oranges slightly, but my paint is just so transarent.  The pot showed through, so I just repainted the pot pack in.  But now that you mention it, it is more noticeable than I realized.  Thank you. 

Comment by susie gregory on March 24, 2012 at 1:01

nice work steph..i only have one suggestion...even though you've overlapped things, maybe they could be overlapped a bit more..several places are coming close to looking like tangents...bottom left where the slice meets the orange and both large oranges where they meet the candle...picky i know...congrats on the critique from richard!!

Comment by Justine Wardle on March 23, 2012 at 21:35

Love the strawberries and the surreal quality the tea candle holder brings.

Comment by Stephanie Burgess on March 23, 2012 at 18:52

Thank you Stu and Richard thank you for the critique.  I value all of the critiques I can get. You are right. I never could have imagined how difficult it is to draw white items.  I am learning so much through the lessons (mastering color) but I notice there is still a battle between what I am learning and what my mind tells me to do so I end up re-doing a lot of things.  I've never tried to draw something from real life before.  This is challenging and exciting. 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on March 23, 2012 at 17:08

Good job, Steph.  Glad that Richard critiqued your work.  Keep it up.  Stu

Comment by Richard Robinson on March 23, 2012 at 16:09

Design

This is one of the most interesting designs we've had I believe, using the candle is a really nice idea. Makes me think of a little village. So yes you've got good elements in there but I do feel the design itself is not quite working. It's such a subjective thing though. If it was me I would have taken one of the big oranges out or have one behind the candle, or add another one. It's so hard to balance two of the same objects in a still life and you did try to hide one a bit but they're both similarly placed on each side of the canvas so it creates a division.
 

Colour

Good strong colour throughout and with a few subtle variations noted here and there. You handled the glowing candle light particularly well. Here are a few things you could look at: you might have grayed the purple in the background to avoid it jumping forward, the cloth appears to be too light, as does the ceramic holder which lessens the effect of the candle light. The fold in shadow on the right of the big orange on the left is much too cool as it should be picking up that reflected orange light and getting darker closer to the orange.
 

Brushwork

Looks like you have a tendency to try and smooth everything out which is easily overcome by cutting one finger off every time you do this. Jokes! No, it's hard to stop yourself doing this. One good exercise is to do a small simple painting of a pear for instance and limit your painting to say, 30 brush strokes. That's 30 times the brush can touch the canvas. You'd be surprised what a bold dynamic pear you can paint with 30 brush strokes. You've tentatively started softening some edges there and I encourage you to continue pushing forward with that.
 

Realism

Some of this rates very high for realism, which is really just a measure if how well you have seen your subject, so it encompasses everything. I love the way you have handled the candle and think that's the crowning achievement of this painting because it's a very tricky thing to do well. Your oranges are beautifully round and edible (and I don't say that to everyone I meet) but your drawing is a bit wonky in places like the tilted ellipse of the half orange and the symmetry of the candle holder. Some good work here though. Keep it up!