Pah Beach2

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Comment by Leif Jensen on December 23, 2011 at 21:05

Thanks Richad for your comments. They are valuable. I will try your suggestions in a reworking of the picture.

Merry Xmas

Leif

Comment by Richard Robinson on December 23, 2011 at 16:01

Hi Leif, thanks for your painting. Here are some thoughts:

Design

The overall arrangement of lights and darks in this painting is interesting and organic but the colour design is what really needs looking at here. 

Colour

I have actually been on a pink beach in Western Australia made up of billions of little pink shells, but it still didn’t look this pink. :-) That’s really pink! Perhaps you were trying to paint the foreground rocky path which leads down to the beach and yes there are some pinky tones in there, but... mmm. If you want to subdue (gray down) a colour you need to look at adding it’s compliment (green in this case) or add a gray to it. 

To get that transparent look of shallow water you need to think about changing the colour as it approaches the shore - it becomes more like the colour of the sandy bottom the closer it gets. You will see that in action in the demo video. Your greens look very much the same all round like you used a tube of green without mixing it. I can see you lightened the green a little bit in the distant headland but it’s still far too green for that distance and needs to be toned down with a blue gray.

Brushwork

Good to see you trying some different paint application techniques there like spattering, thin washes, impasto and scumbling - good work! As you gain experience you’ll gain confidence and that will show through in your brushwork. I suggest you try a few simple small still life studies with a larger brush because once you get the hang of a particular subject it frees your brain to be more confident and expressive with your brushwork.

Realism

The spacing of your waves are too close together and it’s making it look like a long stretch of beach is trying to squeeze itself into a small area which throws the size of everything else into question. The straight regular edge to your rock grouping on the left makes it look more like a garden wall or a damn rather than a natural scattering of rocks. Have a close look at your tree and the tree in the photo and see where your drawing differs. It's all there in front of you but when you’re painting it’s a case of how many balls can you juggle at once so it often helps to segment your studies into specific areas like drawing, colour, texture, form etc. Depends on your level of self discipline too of course and everyone’s different thank goodness.

Hope that helps some.