Snowfield sunny

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Comment by Richard Robinson on September 25, 2011 at 10:09

Thanks. Bitsy means little bits everywhere - not enough bold strokes.

Comment by Helena Ignowski on September 25, 2011 at 5:40

Richard very grateful for your advice!

It,s very good to read the opinion of who is master on the subject! Thank you!
Indeed, there is a war between me do a lot more detail or abstraction.

I just brushing many unnecessary details.
What do I love about his work, is that they inspired strength and harmony.

There is a union job, an entire beauty where everything is "talking" with everything.
  The average values ​​of the shadows and clear acrylic this is a nightmare ... I am afraid that the shadows become marked too!

Thanks for the valuable tips!
Only one thing .... What it means "bitsy".
I will practice again with your tips!

Big hug!

Comment by Richard Robinson on September 24, 2011 at 17:47

Hi Helena, thanks for your painting. Here's a brief critique for you…

 

Design

In general I like the balance of the design however I'm not a big fan of that horizontal pole, although I love the thought of putting it there and I might have done it myself, it seems to me to be fighting for attention with the tree which should really be the star player. Perhaps it would be better broken down or leading in from the right or coming towards us? You also might have combined some of the foreground clumps of grass to provide a better lead-in.

 

There is too much intricate detail at the left side of the painting which leads the eye away. The trees there might have looked better if they were suggested in broad soft strokes rather than described in sharp detail.

 

The distant hill might have looked better thrown into shadow - there's plenty of darks and lights in the painting but few large areas of middle values.

 

Color

I like the idea of warm vs cool in a painting and I think you've done that well and it's nice to see. There is a 50/50 split of warm and cool in your painting whereas conventional painting wisdom often promotes a less balanced color design where one color is dominant to give an impression of unity rather than conflict. Something to think about.

 

It's nice to see the blue reflected in the shadow side of the tree.

 

Brushwork

Too many hard edges and small details are giving this a brittle feeling. I know it's harder with acrylics. It would have been nice to see more variation in the size of your brushwork - it's all a little bitsy and lacking in confidence. Use a larger brush and more paint often to overcome this.

 

Illusion of Reality

Overall pretty good. Nice subtle shapes in the foreground snow and the drawing of the tree itself is decent but could do with a little more attention to the actual tree structure. 

The tree shadow on the snow looks shattered rather than being a logical flowing whole.

 

Hope that helps some.

 

R.