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Don't know what to do with this
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Message
Posted
Mmmm they do look a bit red blobby and floaty David....sorry , but you asked. Personally I think you would see " better with your eyes directly looking at them and not using a light box." Nice subject though.think about that lovely shape of peppers and they also have a shine on them.. describe the shape with a nice round brush. ,tackle those shadows and use descriptive highlights. The stalky bits need more emphasis. I think I would also alter that stark background for a soft grey.
Have fun ,enjoy your efforts and if all seems lost paintover and start again. I do that a lot of the time.
Posted
Sylvia has touched on some good points already, but I’ll add a few more suggestions.
Light box? You don’t need one, set up your still life and draw freehand.
That background is drab, liven it up.
The painting is basically flat looking - mix up some different hues and dark tones to give them shape.
This is rather small to be able to express yourself fully, personally, I would go a bit bigger on your next attempt… apply more paint, get some textures coming through, it’s oil paint, not watercolour!
These are observations, not criticism so keep going and work over all or most of this again… come back and let’s see how you got on.
This is the finished stage of a still life demo I did for The Artist magazine a few months ago, it may help!
Posted
Well keep it going, it takes time, particularly starting with oils but it’s a medium where you can correct any errors easily.
You’ve made a promising start, most of my observations are relatively minor and an easy fix!
Keep posting on here and asking for advice… there are artists on here that have a wealth of experience, whatever the medium.
Posted
Hi David
Excellent advice from Alan and Sylvia. I would only offer one suggestion you might try and that is to make the background a light green, (possibly a few different shades) green being the contrasting colour for red, and this should make your peppers pop out at you! You could try some greens on a separate surface and hold against your painting to see how it looks.
Good luck. I look forward to seeing more.
Posted
I was thinking a complementary colour myself, but for some reason yellow came instantly to mind… try Tessa’s suggestion David and drop a few colours on a scrap of card or whatever!
There are two art magazines, The Artist and Leisure Painter, published monthly by the same team that run this website - I would suggest that you take a subscription to the latter, it’s packed with advice, tips & techniques, as well as practical examples from top artists to follow. Basically, it’s geared towards the novice and enthusiastic amateur!
You can subscribe to it on this website go to menu, then under … I think it’s Store or it might be under subscriptions, I’ll have to check.
It’s under Store and then subscriptions…
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
I was thinking a complementary colour myself, but for some reason yellow came instantly to mind… try Tessa’s suggestion David and drop a few colours on a scrap of card or whatever! There are two art magazines, The Artist and Leisure Painter, published monthly by the same team that run this website - I would suggest that you take a subscription to the latter, it’s packed with advice, tips & techniques, as well as practical examples from top artists to follow. Basically, it’s geared towards the novice and enthusiastic amateur! You can subscribe to it on this website go to menu, then under … I think it’s Store or it might be under subscriptions, I’ll have to check. It’s under Store and then subscriptions…Hi yes i know about them, i have a few digital copies, good magazines. Thanks again
Posted
There needs to be a tonal value difference between the background and foreground. If you turn the painting black & white in a photo app you will see how similar the values are.
When I do a still life I have a cardboard box painted inside with black gesso and a daylight lamp with a bendy head on the left. It gives me a good contrast. 
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