Chinamans Bluff-A River Goes By 2nd Try

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Comment by Sharon Casavant on October 21, 2011 at 3:44

Everything is very nice except for the yellow in the snow!  Trees and river look realistic.

Comment by Dan Lancaster-Kelly on October 15, 2011 at 9:15

Well done guys isn't fun to part of the family

Comment by Denise Maxwell on October 15, 2011 at 8:51

Yes I agree Casey and can see how the eye is taken out of the picture. I think Richards modifying has the eye movement working much better, I'll try and correct that myself. All those different design elements seem so hard to catch on your own. So I appreciate all the help I can get and isn't this an amazing way to learn. Richard has got on to something here with these monthly workshops, as the 'International Artist magazine' has picked up on them too. What a great affirmation of a brilliant idea, congrats to you Richard I'm so glad to be here working on it.

Thanks Delores, I'm hoping viola! is all it takes to bring this alive in real paints but it's all there for me to make it happen, I'll post the results.

Comment by Delores Rhodes on October 15, 2011 at 7:49

Isn't it amazing what a bit of tweeking will do to a painting? Richard is amazing with Photoshop. He took a nice little painting and with a few changes...viola! A REALLY nice painting. Nice work Denise and thank you for the critique Richard. You have no idea how helpful they are.

Delores

Comment by Casey Toussaint on October 14, 2011 at 21:11

I really like the left-hand side of this.  I think the trees are lovely.  I was just wondering, if they leaned ever so slightly into the painting instead of out, wouldn't that direct our eye towards the distant end of the river, and keep us looking into the painting?  As it stands, I find myself attracted to the foreground trees, which then lead me to the top of the left-hand mountain, and out of the frame. Otherwise, nice work.  It's so much easier to criticize than to paint!

 

Comment by Vida Evenson on October 14, 2011 at 21:03

Oh my these reviews are helpful!  I keep coming back to basics.... value value value studies.  My value study has nothing to do with my painting lol.  I get so taken up with the fun of it all that I neglect working on values (and a ton of other things).  Back to the drawing board.... again.

Comment by Denise Maxwell on October 14, 2011 at 16:44

Thank you Richard! This is great, it will really help and of coarse I don't mind. I'm very delighted to have you critique my painting and I'm very glad I didn't start mucking around before I got this. Because of course I didn't see any of it, I just new I was unhappy with it and with the new one I've got the same issues again.

The side by side photos are a real eye opener and you're really good with Photoshop. I have the next several days free to paint and hope my efforts are worthy of such a generous critique. Lots here to consider and to keep thinking about.

I am going down to my own local river to paint as the salmon have arrived to spawn and the fall colors are here and we are also getting good weather for the next several days. So this critique should also help in my plein air river painting tomorrow.

Again thanks, it's greatly appreciated.

Comment by Richard Robinson on October 14, 2011 at 14:06

Thanks for your painting Denise. I realize you're going to do another one but I thought you might like a critique of this one at this point. Hope you don't mind…

Design

 

I love the fact that you've taken elements from two photos and joined them to make a more interesting composition. Great to see you using your artists license. Reducing the size of the trees has made the mountains seem grander and you've also made the mountains more interesting by exaggerating their sculpted forms and making them steeper. The tree shape in the foreground is unique and interesting (as trees are) and you've used the reducing repetition of that element nicely to help create depth while wisely simplifying its detail at the same time. The bank on the right seems a little shapeless to me and could do with more suggestion of structure. Other than that I think the design is quite strong.

 

Colour

 

I like that you have played with the color, making it more saturated, however there's a case to be made for contrasting colour against non color, which is something I often have to force myself to think about while painting because I'm so drawn to making everything 'happy colours' - nice and BRIGHT! The problem with saturated color everywhere in a landscape painting is that it tends to work against depth as colours naturally tend to get more subdued in the distance so that's what we're used to seeing. Putting strong colour in the background pushes it towards us. So I would have grayed down the colours in the mountains and midground a little whilst letting the foreground colours remain saturated. Doing that also gives the stronger colours a chance to look even more powerful contrasted with the grayer background colours.

 

The bigger colour issue here is the blue colour of the stream though. Making it all the same blue like that makes it appear like there's blue paint in it. Have a look at the resource photo again to see what the actual colour was. As the water comes closer to us we can look through the surface and see more of the greeny/brown bottom colours showing through the reflection of the sky. Your blue is also a bit too light - if you compare the grayscale images of your painting and the resource photo you'll see that clearly. The foreground rocks in the river appear to be too warm - from a distance they look conspicuously like goldfish. That's also due to all that blue around them though.

 

The yellow in the clouds is too dark in value - needs more white and if you're going to warm up the cloud colours there you will also need to do the same with the snow.

 

Brushwork

 

Your brushwork is varied and expressive. Good to see you didn't go crazy with the small brush when you put in the few details there - good  work! I would have liked to see a few key brushstrokes in the foreground grasses, water and rocks be a little bolder and thicker paint.

Realism

 

The colour is really the major factor holding this painting back from achieving some really solid realism. The drawing is good except for a few rocks that could do with some attention and the changes you've made to the landscape all fit together nicely in perspective so well done there too.

 

Hope that helps some.

 

 

Comment by Vida Evenson on October 4, 2011 at 21:19

I have the hardest time with bunches of trees and, I now find, with rocks.  You have suggested trees and rocks along the bank so well and I'm looking closely to learn how to do it.  Nice color contrast from warm/cool.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 4, 2011 at 14:51

Denise,

Keep trying--your first painting did not have enough light in it--too dark for anything but a nocturne.  This 2nd try is much, much better.  Your trees are more to scale, your river definitely leads you into the painting, and you have good color harmony.  As you said, you cannot see the luminous light around the mountains very well--but you will probably get it the next try.  Even if you don't, take heart, because it looks like Richard will tell us how to paint luminous light in his short lesson for the next challenge. 

Stu