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Message
Posted
Hi, I'm new to this forum so not sure if this is the correct place to do this or the correct thing to do but I'd like some feedback on a piece that I am working on for someone who is asking for a South African Big 5 Painting. I'm almost done..need to still add whiskers to the leopard. but I think I'm too close to the painting and I am getting to that point where if I do anymore I may mess it up so I need to step back for a bit. Anyways, thought I'd throw it out there to get some feedback and advise... :-) I admit I struggled with the background and I am still not sure if I should keep it - I didn't want to have a flat colour. Backgrounds are a weak point of mine.
Posted
I'm not great at adding backgrounds either, but I think that if I was talented enough to produce a painting like this, I would think that I had got this right. In my opinion, with 5 large animals and only a little background available, I wouldn't want to detract from them. However, there are lots of artists here with more experience than me, who could, perhaps give you more advice. Good luck - it's a lovely painting.
Posted
I wouldn't add a background - it's not as if they are sharing a veldt together or something,
I'd like to say - this looks FANTASTIC. I do have a small issue - the pussycat, bottom left, looks a bit odd for some reason.
At first I thought he was too wide and squat, but they do have a low chunky body to them.
Later thoughts - it's the lack of definitions between head/face and neck/body -- all the others have a shadow or a separation of colours (like the lion-pussy), the leo-puss needs some form of enhanced shading around his neck.
Other than that.. AWESOME!
I did a quickee shadow: The neck still isn't right but now his muzzle has a definite 3D forwards dimension.
Edited
by DippyDipper
Posted
That's a Cape Buffalo, not a Wildebeest ( Otherwise known as the Gnu [I'm a Gnu; how do you do? I'm quite the gnicest work of gnature in the zoo.....] ) Very different animal - buffalo are said to be more dangerous than any other African animal - except for man, obviously. .
As for the painting - I wouldn't worry about a background; if the surface is buff, as it looks to be, I'd leave it. If it's whiter than it looks in the photograph, then a colour wash should sort it out.
The animals are not of course in proportion to each other - that may not matter; some would possibly pick up on it - I realize there's not much you can do about that at this stage. As with the leopard, which has caused some problems to our safari-ing artist North Light: well, she knows better than I do, because I've only ever seen leopards in a zoo, and that must have been 40 years ago - I'm presuming it is a leopard - I know it's not a cheetah - or the head's too broad if it is, but there are other spotted cats (mostly in Asia though). I'm not competent to judge and it probably depends on what you were working from and the state of tension in the animal at the time - he doesn't look especially benign to me!
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Edited
by RobertJones
Posted
Thank you all so much for your comments! I've found them very useful, particularly the shading by the neck! Thank you, DD for showing me - it's amazing what a difference it makes!
I will make a confession here, I used a projector to copy the leopard and it projected the image in a wide format! This is why the leopard looks a bit odd & a bit plump. I didn't pick up on it initially but now know for next time I need to be aware of this, we live & learn! :-)
Loving the comments tho!
Posted
Nothing wrong with using a projector YoWzaH, or any other tool available to you - that is what they are there for should you need them. It would be lovely if we could all sketch well, but some of us, me included, sometimes need a bit of help. I'm better at painting and then rectifying my mistakes. I know some will throw their hands up in horror, but everyone has different talents. I painted two tigers some years ago and boy, are they benign! Will post them on gallery soon, then you can all have a giggle!
Posted
I agree Adele if you want to use a projector or any other aid, thats just fine. Once more I shove in my twopenorth and say I wouldn't do that. Simply because its not how I work. In this instance if I had the commission I would have gone to a local zoo and sketched and taken photographs . But then Im little miss perfection as we all know. L O L .
Posted
Nothing wrong with being a perfectionist either Sylvia. Whatever an artist wants to do is fine really. I just think that a lot of artists are made to feel a little guilty if they admit to having a bit of help now and then and that may lead to one or two dropping out of art, especially if they have been put off in the past. And that would be a terrible shame.
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