Late afternoon in Akko

Any suggestions to improve this are appreciated! Was trying to convey the beautiful afternoon light and shadows on the ancient walls of the city. That is really a staircase leading down from the walls directly into the sea, which was quite choppy that day!

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Comment by Michael J. Severin on November 5, 2013 at 4:45: Hi Jessica. What I am seeing here, is that your horizon line is going to be at the level of your skyline ..because the perspective line at that location indicates your horizon line to be there (the way you drew it)....that's really high!!! The p. line of the buildings in question are actually going OUT OF THE PAINTING!! with your horizon line completely out of view!! No, the answer is NOT to raise your horizon line ..because you will then need to change other lines....and now the whole thing becomes very problematic. I would suggest that you keep your fixes to a minimum by just redrawing that critical p. line of the middle buildings. You will still be able to see SOME of the tops of the wall ...the parts that are below the horizon ...! The roofs? .....well ...?

Comment by Jessica Futerman on November 5, 2013 at 4:21: Thanks a lot, Michael for the very encouraging comments & for noticing the perspective problem - you are absolutely right! The horizon line is actually much higher in my photo but I thought I'd lower it in order to have more sky in my painting! Now I see what I didn't even notice; that doing that throws off the entire drawing!!! So I'll have to dispense with my big sky & add more of the sea instead - because I love the light on the tops of the walls & buildings. Will have to be more careful when altering reality! Will leave this up so others can learn from my mistake!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on November 5, 2013 at 3:42: Jessica, this is very good!! Your concept was the afternoon light and shadows ..and you did a great job on that. Your sky is gradated so beautifully and the light permeates everything!! Composition, color, and values look right on to me. Your drawing, though, has a few problems relating to perspective lines. Normally, I would not mention minor perspective problems, but the perspective of the buildings beyond that first wall are very off ...making the building tilt at an awkward angle toward us. Since the tops of those buildings are ABOVE the horizon line, you would not be able to see the tops. Also, since there are areas of the wall that are above the horizon, you would not be able to see the tops of them. This is too nice of a painting to ignore the drawing problems ..your painting deserves the fix.