Margarita?

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Comment by Justine Wardle on April 27, 2012 at 23:41

I always thought this was bold and strong and Richard has comfirmed congrats on the critique

Comment by Anne Wheeler on April 27, 2012 at 18:56

Thank you so much for the critique Richard. I am learning so much from these challenges. The information about observing colour and values more accurately is very useful. Thanks. My goal is to be able to paint MUCH MORE loosely. I admire paintings that have confident, spontaneous brush marks. I am up to the Chapter 7 Exercises in Mastering Colour so will have the opportunity to practice looser brush techniques with those small landscapes.

Comment by Delores Rhodes on April 27, 2012 at 15:15

Boy! A gal takes a break for a few months and you guys begin improving at hyper-speed. I can't believe how much improvement I see. Wonderful stuff. 

Comment by Richard Robinson on April 27, 2012 at 9:20

Design
Nice design Anne - as much as I try to avoid using the 'nice' word, there it is. It's well balanced, yet not symmetrical, it has a good variety of shapes, sizes and placements which don't seem over-organised, which is our natural tendency. I usually avoid a flat black background but in this case I think it works well with the modern items you have used. Even the slightly off balance chopping board and sharp diagonals running off the edges seem to me to add to the contemporary feel of this painting. I especially like the subtle curving procession from whole lemon to half lemon to slice which leads us to the top of the cocktail shaker - very cool.

Colour
I find it interesting that most of these still life paintings end up looking cooler (more blue) than their counterpart photos. I guess that's one of the differences between our eyes and a camera - our brains adjust to the warm colour cast of the light and render the colour as close to daylight 'normal' as possible. In a recent blog artist Qiang Huang came up with a good idea to counteract this - simply place a white led light (he used a white iphone screen) in the scene to give you a pure white to check your colours against. Similarly, one of the Impressionist's (sorry I forget the name) used to take a black top hat and white gloves or handkerchief outdoors painting to place in the scene so as to be better able to judge relative values. I recommend also having a value scale on your palette or beside your painting as you work. Aside from all that though, your colours are well done and keenly observed. I would like to see a little more value modelling within the flower to give it more solidity.

Brushwork
As with so many acrylic paintings this has been overworked until most of the brushmarks are gone which to me is a shame because it hides your handwriting and removes one more element of variety in a painting. That's my view however and it's all completely subjective (which makes it so hard to critique!) and it depends entirely on your goals as a painter. If you want to loosen up I recommend as always, bigger brushes and more paint (especially with acrylics) and if you want to get even tighter use smaller brushes and more layers. Personally I'm beginning to consider how can I use the infinite variety of brushwork, texture and paint thickness to say more about my subject, rather than just painting flat colour shapes.

Realism
It is beautifully crisp and detailed and the drawing is mostly excellent as is your judgement of values. It's especially interesting seeing the detail in the stem of the glass and the metal and the subtlety in the colours of the upper glass. I would add a thin occlusion shadow under the leaves where they sit on the board. Good job. Keep up the great work!

Comment by Pauline Le Merle on April 26, 2012 at 21:42

This is lovely Anne. So fresh.....

Comment by Ningning Li on April 25, 2012 at 8:03

So elegant and realistic.  The dark background muted all the noise and let me concentrate to read and enjoy those lovely items one by one without hush. I totally agree with Stephanie, the distorted reflection on the glass make this painting more interesting and real. Anne,it is a very nice and pleasent work. Li

Comment by Dorian Aronson on April 23, 2012 at 15:52

Your bottom yellow lemon is so realistic!  dor:))

Comment by Justine Wardle on April 22, 2012 at 21:13

That margarita certainly has a zing to it.  Love the strong colour and the refracted daisies in the glass makes it  very believable. 

Comment by Nancy Sands on April 22, 2012 at 15:01

Lovely. You really nailed that flask.

Comment by Anne Wheeler on April 22, 2012 at 14:30

Thank you for your comments:)  Feel I should mute the greens and there is something not quite right in the glass.

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