Wow, that was tougher than I thought (to paint that is)

I am literally a brand new painter (these are my first kicks at it) and I have no one who I can ask about them. I would LOVE some critique. Thx

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Comment by Catherine Spencer on August 7, 2013 at 12:32: Reid ... I like your bird, and yes, he looks round. His light belly suggests that is where the reflected light (sun bouncing off flower light) is and his sides are shadowed slightly and his back is lit by the direct sunlight. I think your bird totally looks round to me ... but hey im new at this too. When want my trees trunks to look round, I paint a flat brown stick then add a highlight colour in a "expanded U" shape all the way up the tree (hard to explain). The highlighted area I "scrumble" (a painterly term, I have learned) which simply means putting paint on your brush, wiping it on a rag, then dry brushing the color randomly up the trunk ... it looks a little more blended cause its faded spotty color on top of the base brown of the trunk. SOrry, im not good at explaining. I basically live on google asking every painting question that comes into my head ... i usually find the answer there, if that helps. Lots of how-to painting videos on u-tube. Hope that helps :)

Comment by Reid Barton on July 31, 2013 at 10:46: Thanks Silvana. Nice to be here. I live amongst friends who may like art but not enough to talk about it or discuss it. The idea of going to a gallery would be painful to most if not all of them. I don't get it. Who in the world wouldn't want to discuss art, history, philosophy, no matter what level one is at? There's only so much hockey or car talk in one conversation - at least for me. Anyhow, thanks and perhaps we will chat in the future.

Comment by Silvana M Albano on July 31, 2013 at 9:22: You have definitely landed in an excellent site for what you are looking for! Welcome Reid!

Comment by Reid Barton on July 31, 2013 at 5:40: Wow, thanks for commenting Linda. I am brand new at this hobby. I just made up the back ground, grabbed a pic of a hummingbird from google images (the real one looks nothing like this little guy, but not on purpose) and added the flowers because I happened to have some paint sitting in front of me that needed to be used up. Wow is it ever hard to create that 3d feeling. I think he's radioactive on his belly too.

Comment by Linda L. Kano on July 31, 2013 at 1:31: Reid, I like your painting of the hummingbird and flowers. The textured background, choice of colors, and design are very good. Did you follow a specific set of directions from a book or are you just naturally talented!!!