In comparison, top one works best. The temperature shifts are more subtle and therefore more believable. Planar analysis is more deliberate, yet appears less labored. You are caring more about your marks - perhaps the underdrawing is better.
Your missing the "donut" around the mouths - the flesh at the corners of the mouth that rounds out the lips. Top one is better.
Not a good indication of the receding plane caused by the trachea under the chin of the bottom face, therefore the chin does not protrude.
The glabella and superorbital margin on people of asian descent is not well pronounced and can be tricky; this region on the bottom face, however, looks pretty good, but there's some confusion with the middle one.
Hair describes the head on the middle one pretty well; this is lacking with the bottom one.
I agree, the first one is the most successful, but only because it is unfinished, otherwise I imagine that it would have ended up like the others. How long were these? I commend you on making the attempt at doing a live figure in oil. That's tough.
I think the 3rd one is the most successful of the 2 finished pieces. There is a much greater modulation of the 3D form. But, that aspect is fairly week in both. The 3rd one is stronger because the contrast between the lit surfaces and the shadow surfaces is greater.
It seems you are really being tripped up in distinguishing value from hue. Your values are all very close, but the darks need to be darker and the lights need to be lighter. As it is, everything is within a very narrow threshold of similar values.
There is also the element that within the modulation of the light surfaces, there are values that are exactly the same as in the modulation of the dark surfaces. You really need to establish a hierarchy of light sources. Is the overhead light the brightest, or is the red side light? Even if they are close, you need to decide which one is it. Then once you map out where which light has what influence, all the surfaces being illuminated by the light will be brighter than all the surfaces in shadow. If there are 2 light sources, the brightest surfaces as illuminated by the secondary light have to be darker than the brightest surfaces illuminated by the brightest light.
Also, no 2 surfaces are alike. In the 3rd painting's hair, there is a very strong move: the bottom of the bangs are darker than the same bangs where they attach to the head, very good. However, you use the same value to describe the hair next to the temple as you do the hair at the back of the head. As you have modulated the bangs from bottom to top, you need to similarly modulate the hair from front to back. follow?
If you were to expand what you have done with the bangs to every surface, modulating them from top to bottom, and then also from front to back or left to right, this would be a very strong piece and you wouldn't have to worry about your colors at all.
The top piece is the most interesting and successful. The unfinished look is working. I agree on the values needing work to create more depth and form. Huge step forward over the last couple of months. I'm very impressed.
I think the skin tone is most convincingly "alive" on the top piece...mostly because everything surrounding it is a dull gray. I expect (because we see color by contrasting it with surrounding colors) if the piece had been finished with as much color as the others, the skin tone might have ended up looking a little pasty.
I expect that the pasty look in the other paintings is a result of 1) bright colors surrounding the face and 2) a lot of white was used to lighten the flesh tones...which is perfectly normal to do, but I try to get around the pasty problem by glazing over the face with very transparent but pure color. If you do this when the white-mixed paint is dried, you can rub off the excess glaze with a cloth (I just use my hand)...the glaze pigment will usually stain the white/mix paint slightly. The effect is a vibrant looking color in a light value.
i really like painting on a med value board but it is affecting my color perceptions should i try a warmer back ground or should i keep it as nuetral as possible. should i not use any white and lighten the skin tones with value contrast only?
these are some life oil paintings. please restrict comments to technique excluding composition
5 comments:
In comparison, top one works best. The temperature shifts are more subtle and therefore more believable. Planar analysis is more deliberate, yet appears less labored. You are caring more about your marks - perhaps the underdrawing is better.
Your missing the "donut" around the mouths - the flesh at the corners of the mouth that rounds out the lips. Top one is better.
Not a good indication of the receding plane caused by the trachea under the chin of the bottom face, therefore the chin does not protrude.
The glabella and superorbital margin on people of asian descent is not well pronounced and can be tricky; this region on the bottom face, however, looks pretty good, but there's some confusion with the middle one.
Hair describes the head on the middle one pretty well; this is lacking with the bottom one.
I agree, the first one is the most successful, but only because it is unfinished, otherwise I imagine that it would have ended up like the others.
How long were these? I commend you on making the attempt at doing a live figure in oil. That's tough.
I think the 3rd one is the most successful of the 2 finished pieces. There is a much greater modulation of the 3D form. But, that aspect is fairly week in both. The 3rd one is stronger because the contrast between the lit surfaces and the shadow surfaces is greater.
It seems you are really being tripped up in distinguishing value from hue. Your values are all very close, but the darks need to be darker and the lights need to be lighter. As it is, everything is within a very narrow threshold of similar values.
There is also the element that within the modulation of the light surfaces, there are values that are exactly the same as in the modulation of the dark surfaces. You really need to establish a hierarchy of light sources. Is the overhead light the brightest, or is the red side light? Even if they are close, you need to decide which one is it. Then once you map out where which light has what influence, all the surfaces being illuminated by the light will be brighter than all the surfaces in shadow. If there are 2 light sources, the brightest surfaces as illuminated by the secondary light have to be darker than the brightest surfaces illuminated by the brightest light.
Also, no 2 surfaces are alike. In the 3rd painting's hair, there is a very strong move: the bottom of the bangs are darker than the same bangs where they attach to the head, very good. However, you use the same value to describe the hair next to the temple as you do the hair at the back of the head. As you have modulated the bangs from bottom to top, you need to similarly modulate the hair from front to back. follow?
If you were to expand what you have done with the bangs to every surface, modulating them from top to bottom, and then also from front to back or left to right, this would be a very strong piece and you wouldn't have to worry about your colors at all.
The top piece is the most interesting and successful. The unfinished look is working. I agree on the values needing work to create more depth and form. Huge step forward over the last couple of months. I'm very impressed.
I think the skin tone is most convincingly "alive" on the top piece...mostly because everything surrounding it is a dull gray. I expect (because we see color by contrasting it with surrounding colors) if the piece had been finished with as much color as the others, the skin tone might have ended up looking a little pasty.
I expect that the pasty look in the other paintings is a result of 1) bright colors surrounding the face and 2) a lot of white was used to lighten the flesh tones...which is perfectly normal to do, but I try to get around the pasty problem by glazing over the face with very transparent but pure color. If you do this when the white-mixed paint is dried, you can rub off the excess glaze with a cloth (I just use my hand)...the glaze pigment will usually stain the white/mix paint slightly. The effect is a vibrant looking color in a light value.
i really like painting on a med value board but it is affecting my color perceptions should i try a warmer back ground or should i keep it as nuetral as possible. should i not use any white and lighten the skin tones with value contrast only?
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