Painting!

[breakfastcake]

I actually have no clue where painting belongs in the forum, so I figured Arts and Crafts was a safe bet.

I am working on a series of deserted, urban landscapes. Here are the first two:



(Untitled), 2008. 5 x 3 ft.



(Untitled), 2007. 4.5 x 3 ft.

Any thoughts? Criticisms? Ideas on how to take this further?

Post your own paintings!

[GenericName]

Nice! I actually cannot think of a good criticism for you. Well done!

(I don't really paint much, so I have no paintings to add to this thread. I do have some photoshop art in my DA, a link to which is in my sig)

[Linds]

I really like your color choices, especially in the car! What are you using, oils? They're too big to be watercolors, but they have qualities of a watercolor and I really like that.

[breakfastcake]

Thanks!

They are oils. I kind of despise watercolor.

[Emaline]

I love watercolors! They are all kinds of fun to paint with. So pretty.



Oils are awesome too. When I used to paint, I started on oils. I like the texture they can bring.

[StarmanJr]

wow...those are the best landscapes i've seen in years 

[Alex C]

YOU ARE BETTER THAN ME AND I HATE YOU.
   /
 


Seriously though, the blending is almost enough to make me want to try oils again. Good stuff.

[breakfastcake]

Thank you very much!

I think I dislike watercolor because I can't cover up mistakes, or plan out things quite as well.

[Alternative_Pixie]

Wow, these are really good!  One thing I think would be good though is a few more little details - I can tell you're going for simplistic, but maybe some litter or a fire hydrant somewhere would look cool.

I really love your use of colour though; as someone else said, especially the car!  Looking forward to seeing more of this series

[Johnny C]

They're really nice. I feel they could use a bit sharper contrast though - there are a lot of mid tones and light tones but the darks are very limited.

[Vendetagainst]

Those are really awesome, I just started oil painting (as in a few days ago) and I'm really amazed at how good you are.

[Jepser]

Effin' rad, would love to learn how to paint a little, oil paint seems like the coolest. As for now I only do pastel pencil drawings and the like. 

[nettatea]

I think the first one is great, owing largely to the shapes and colors you chose. I think the shape of the bike makes the simplicity in the rest of the painting work. And the color of the wall, similarly, makes the color choices to the right work.
But I think the second painting lacks that factor that ties it together. The detail in the car comes close to balancing the blur of the buildings, but not enough for me. I think the buildings closer to the right should have more definition, or the blur should be balanced some other way. As it is the painting looks under-worked to me. Also I think the colors in the second painting are too muted overall.
I do really like the way you rendered the car in the second painting though.

[dancarter]

Really nice stuff.  I like the oozy quality of the first one, and as said the colour is realy nicely handled.

Is it okay to put other paintings in here?
Here are two acrylics I did for a show at Fanshawe College in London for the Mackie Cryderman Foundation.  They're called "Solvent".  I'm not happy with the skin tones on the female, and embarassed by the fact that I used myself as reference for the male....I don't get out much.  Oh well.  They measure 5' x 5' together.


And two watercolour illustrations for a now defunct e-zine's short stories called "Wet" and "Mary"
[

[St.Germain]

...And I'm reviving this thread.

Here's what I've got:

This one looks a little weird for some reason. See it not weird here: http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cemeterynowpaintedmw0.jpg



They're not all that great, but not all that bad.

[tuna ketchup x]

Dancarter, those watercolors are amazing!

[norcekri]

Critique for Rhonda:
(1)  Do not stop painting.

The bicycle painting:
(2) good palette
(3) great draw to move the eye from the foreground to the back
(4) nice interest points back there
(5) lights and darks are extreme enough and balance well.
(6) I don't see any further draw to bring the eye out of the background.  Perhaps a piece of trash in the lower right?  This is a very clean alley.
(7) I'm not getting a good sense of time of day: lighting sources and direction are ambiguous.  The even lighting down the alley suggests late afternoon to me, but the interior house light (critical to the composition) suggests night-time.  Artificial lighting in the alley should be more differentiated.
( I really like the way the red wall takes up a huge amount of physical space, but doesn't hold the eye.  Nice work!  It has just enough texture to make it a wall, and that's all it does.  That's art.

The street scene:
(9) Again, good palette, albeit muted this time.  The red building against the sort-of-yellow car and the blue scene makes good use of colors that often comprise a trite palette.
(10) The focal points I see are the car, the red building, and ... even following the pavement off to the left, there's not enough to move the eye around the picture.  Perhaps one fuzzy human form (all in a very dark brown?) near the left, walking towards us, would complete the motion.  I suspect that you're trying to avoid people -- including one barely recognizable person might violate your artist's vision, but I think it would be a sharp contrast, actually adding to the desolation.  Is s/he coming to drive away and leave the neighborhood totally deserted?
(11) The building style is really nice.  I've seen this attempted and failed far too much in our monthly openings around the city (Portland OR)
(12) Again, I really like your ability to put a small amount of texture on a surface, defining its function without having that texture detract from the rest of the piece.  Texture and depth are really hard for a lot of artists, but you have the basic gut feeling already licked.

(13) Do not stop painting.

[dancarter]

Firstly, I wholeheartedly agree with everything norcekri said.  Especially the part about never stopping.

Second, for St. Germain:
Your work is very nice indeed. 
Great spacial separation, good use of colour.  Personally, I like a more blended look, something somewhat more unified and analagous throughout, though the drastic colour shifts do add nice tension.
If that is the style you're looking to explore, you may wish to highten it further on moon's surface.

Lastly, thank you tuna ketchup x!

[St.Germain]

I'm not sure what you mean by "drastic color shifts". Could you please clarify?

[dancarter]

it may be the photos, but the sense that i get from them is that your paintings tend to have solid colours butting directly against other solid colours without blending.  that is what i mean by drastic colour shifitng.

[Cicero]

You guys are awesome.   Very great work.   You're blessed.   Keep it up.     Hell, I'd pay some of you for a canvas.   Name your price.

[St.Germain]

Dancarter: You may be right. This is the photo that the cemetary was painted from: http://img231.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cemetaryhu1.jpg, and does seem to have more subdued colors, especially in the background. Oh well, that just calls for more practice. I can do skies pretty well, but the landscapes still need work. I'd blame the fact that I use acryllic craft paint, but I don't really think that's the problem.

Thank you for your comments, you've given me something to focus on in future projects.

[Linds]

Actually, you would get better results if you weren't using craft paint. It's easier to blend.

[Drill King]

Dear dancarter, do you have a website? I would love to see more.

EDIT
SO I have received a rather large box of oil paints. I have never used them. How do I use them? Do I need to add anything to the tubed paint or.. I'm unsure.

[Linds]

Andy, if there is an art supply store nearby, go there and talk to someone who knows about oils. They'll be able to show you what's what.

[Jace]

Alternatively, search youtube for "The Joy of Painting"
Then you can be perfectly happy and learn to paint.

[dancarter]

Dear dancarter, do you have a website? I would love to see more.

EDIT
SO I have received a rather large box of oil paints. I have never used them. How do I use them? Do I need to add anything to the tubed paint or.. I'm unsure.

I don't right now, sadly...though thanks so much for the interest.  There are some things in the offing coming up though.  Some print projects and a show and an eventual website once I figger out how to build it and find the time.

As for oil paints, there are some great online tutorials at my favorite supply store, Curry's.  I guess it's a plug, sort of, but by no means do you have to buy anything, the tutorials are free.  they can be found here: www.currys.com

[Linds]

The only reason I suggested going to a store is because I think it's easier to learn about something when it's physically in front of you.

I mean, all I ever used with oils was some galkyd lite for speeding up drying time, liquin for transparency and glazing, turpenoid for cleaning brushes, and also some of that automotive hand cleaner for getting any leftover solvent or paint out of the brushes after I was done painting for the day. But I think that would make more sense to someone who has never used oils before if I could show them the physical bottle and tell them how to gauge just how much of each thing to use.

[ecstaticjoy]

Alternatively, search youtube for "The Joy of Painting"
Then you can be perfectly happy and learn to paint.

I was searching for Bob Ross the other day on youtube and there are so many spoofs of The Joy of Painting out there! I could only find the last minute of 1 show after a laborious search.

[Jace]

There was a guy that posted entire episodes for a while, but then youtube started taking them down, bit by bit. The jerks. I want to watch Bob Ross paint, that guy is like the coolest man ever. He was in the air force and shit!

[dancarter]

I think PBS still airs the Best of the Joy of Painting every week, do they not?  I know it's not the same as being able to watch it at your leisure, but...
At most art schools I've been to, there's been an almost Anal Prolapse like cult following for him.

[Allybee]

work in progress

[dancarter]

That is just plain awesome in striped jumpers.  The expression is absolutely fantastic.

[Allybee]

thanks! coming from you, that means a lot. I'll be sure to post another picture when it's done.

[Aurjay]

dream of the sky


Henry Rollins


Michael Graves


Born to Die


United Corporations of America

[andrews]

I am getting amazed over the painting. This makes rapid changes in the new trend. It is a big treat to our eyes to watch the beautiful paintings. This is a good painting I have ever seen in my life.

[ibrahimdelil]

uhh,