Rees Valley

Add a Comment

Comment by Casey Toussaint on November 20, 2011 at 2:43

Beautiful! 

Comment by Dania Bree on November 15, 2011 at 17:20

Stuart,

Thank you very much for your comments.  I'm kind of a newbie to the site, so I'm still finding my way around and learning how it works.  

Comment by Dania Bree on November 15, 2011 at 17:09

Richard,

Thanks so much for the critique.   I really like seeing the grayscale and 4 and 2 value breakdown.  I did posterize your photo to help me in the beginning but it never occurred to me to do it to the painting afterward.  Very informative.  As far as those greens in the left mountains (and spots on the right) - yeah, I want to fix those for sure and also some areas of the river.  Trying to get the curves of the water to lay flat at the same time getting the right colour caused me to lose the flow in some parts.  I love painting mountains but like to be on site better. I find it hard painting from a photo where I've never been.  But I'm loving the opportunity to practice and participate on this site.  I really appreciate such in depth comments that can be also be used going forward.

Dania

Comment by Richard Robinson on November 15, 2011 at 9:34

Hi Dania, thanks for your lovely painting - here are my thoughts on it:

 

Design

I really like this design. You’ve decided to crop out the plain on the left and make the river a bigger player. The remaining dark shapes balance each other in a bold simple fashion making this painting read really well from a distance. Bravo!

 

Color

It’s all going quite well until we hit the green in the left hand mountains - and aaaargh! The chroma is too high (not enough gray) which brings this colour right into the foreground, spoiling the illusion of distance. The problem is that your brain knows all those trees are green so it tries to make you paint them vibrant green. If you blur your vision at the resource photo you will see the green there is actually very close to the blue/gray base colour of those mountains. Your other colours in that area (the other mountains and the river plain) are suffering from the same problem - not enough blue/gray in them. Easily fixed though. Same goes for the slashes of green in the hill on the right - just knock it back a little. Love the colour work in your sky and the same warm/cool idea being applied to the snow - very nice. I’m also enjoying the slight glowing light effect you’ve managed to work into the top edge of the mountain on the right - it makes sense of the light reflecting of the river too - good work!

 

Brushwork

In some areas like the foreground tree, the riverbanks and some of the river itself your brushwork is looking great with the appearance of being effortlessly brushed on which is a joy to look at. Some other areas have been labored over a little - areas where you haven’t got the colour right first hit by the looks of it. Often with oils it’s better to scrape an area and redo it from scratch rather than adding good paint to bad - one less ball to juggle.

 

Realism

Nearly there! Just those high chroma colours in the distance are spoiling the realism here, and the drawing of the mountains could be a little more precise - they look a bit muddled (trick things aren’t they!?) There’s a curious problem with the structure of the base of the far left green mountain too - it seems to be arching over into the middle-ground somehow. Have a closer look at the resource photo to see what’s going wrong there.

 

Overall I think it’s a very nice painting displaying some considerable skill with just that colour issue knocking some points off. Good work!

 

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on November 13, 2011 at 13:45

Dania, nice painting.  Good color harmony with luscious blues.  Snow covered mountains are very well done.  Stu

Comment by Dania Bree on November 13, 2011 at 5:05

Thank you so much Jane,  I'd really like to paint this on site but I live way to far away for that to happen.  I went on the internet to find more pictures of Rees Valley to get a better feel for the area.  Also tried to pull from some experience when painting in the mountains in the US.  Main thing is that this is a great opportunity to practice, practice, practice !

Comment by Jane Albin on November 12, 2011 at 9:06

Really nice.  I love the blues in the water and on the snow.  I also like the subtle greens on the hillsides.