Some You Win, Some others ...

You lose, LOL.

Now after last weeks, what is wrong with this and why?

I think I could have painted this better in pastel, Or more likely, I was painting this as if I was using pastels. I should have left white space for the middle ground trees and foliage for example.

Also there is no real contrasts in tone, yes there is some but I have mixed up recession thru tonal contrast (the hills) with aerial perspective and colour recession. There are no shadows to speak of and the result is flat and uninteresting.

Lastly, I used a small brush for the last painting, I was using a pocket w/c set. I had to use the brush quickly and scrub/move the paint around. Here, I had decided to use tube colours and a larger brush. Maybe too large for the areas of the painting where some texture would have helped  create a feeling of detail.

I am going to try this same subject again and try to improve it based on the above comments. But I will also try to improve this painting by completing it with pastels. See if I can do something with it as a mixed media work.

Watch this space ...

A work in progress - a break with tradition.

I though I had finished this pastel painting and photographed it, loaded to my PC and then sat and looked at it. No it wasn't what I had intended at all.

What is wrong? Well the clouds are not like clouds, they look more like misplaced foliage and in the original photograph there was a vaulted appearance to the sky, I need to darken the top corners of the painting.

If you want to see the original by Robin (waterlily on Redgage), please be my guest; just pop over to the image titled heavenly.

You will see that it is not quite the same effect, I will be working on this again and will repost when I have completed it to my satisfaction. Check back to see when it is complete.

Beach Scene: miniature acrylic canvas

I am still going strong with these miniatre canvases, only one this week but the group had an influx of fourn new members and I had a little "admin" to take care of. A small group, even smaller than us, had decided to wind up as it was difficult for them to pay their Hall rental. Still wanting to paint every week they had decided to ask if they could join us. We of course were delighted to welcome them into our fold, as it eases the financial issues for us of course.

Anyway back to the point of this posting, an empty beach with a stand of trees in the near distance. there should have been a couple of bathers but I am still wondering how to best depict them on such a small scale. I may pluck up courage next time and will update the image if I do.

The one thing that I have to say about this image id the overall lack of contrasts of tone. Colour contrasts are fine but we all know that tonal contrasts are what makes the image zing. I toned down the beach and the clouds and am unhappy. Here again, I will be trying to make up for this. Something that can be done in acrylic I am happy to say. Maybe I had other things on my mind.

What do you think?

So there it is: more tonal contrast on the beach and in the clouds and a couple of bathers in the mid-distance. Shouldn't be too much to ask?

I think I now have enough of these to write a Squidoo lens on the subject. My experience with a new medium and how I approached painting miniatures. Why not? Oh and yes they will be going up for sale sometime soon, just trying to settle on a selling price - or in the case of Ebay an opening bid. I will be posting results when (and if) I sell my first miniature canvas.