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Blythburgh Church. Suffolk, version 2
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Message
Posted
Just a quick observation - reflections are always darker than the real image. The light comes from the sun and sky, bounces off the objects and then bounces off the water. Light is lost in each process, so the reflection has to have less light and therefore darker. If you correct this it would make a tremendous improvement.
Posted
Yes, definitely make the reflection a touch darker, and I still think the tower is longer than it should be in the reflection.
It’s still lacking in tonal contrast, you’re working from a photo which generally means little or no strong values as such.
I suggested before that you use it as a reference only and do your own thing... within reason of course!
But it’s an improvement of sorts, it’s an accurate representation of this building and its surroundings, a sort of photographic representation if you like ... a more artistic representation would be more exciting!
A good exercise for you would be to work on some quick oil/acrylic sketches of say no more than ten or fifteen minutes or so, see if it helps to loosen up your painting style - think expressive and painterly, less photographic!
Posted
Great idea John, quick and loose smallish sizes, but decent size brushes, not 00 size! - a limited palette of say five colours will also help with your colour mixing and help achieve a coordination throughout.
Try the Belle Arti canvas/MDF boards from Jackson’s, you’ll enjoy painting on them, I rarely use anything else.
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
While I don't think that every painting needs to be plein air, I do think you need to get outside and look at what you're painting. I don't mind using photographs, preferably my own, but if that's all I'd ever done I'd never have made any progress - I might have become a good copier of photographs, but that's not what I wanted to do: and there's not much point in it.
So it's good news that you're going to venture outside; even if you don't always paint in the outdoors, any walk is much enhanced by really looking at your surroundings with a view to painting them. What photos, even very good ones, are very bad at is conveying any real sense of tone - by all means go out with your camera, but take a few colour notes in a small sketch-book as well - just a few pastels or coloured pencils, even a small tin of watercolours (plus a bottle of water!), and standing there and looking, will show you that, e.g., shadows on different objects have different colours in them; reflections don't always sit quite how you'd expect them to if you didn't really look; and again, the colour of reflections and their tone will be revealed to you in a way you'll never get from photographs - and might get from your imagination IF that imagination is fed by a good visual memory and looking HARD.
Mind you, I've not ventured outdoors this year to paint OR draw - too perishing cold so far. But I do walk at least every other day: and make sure I don't just troop on oblivious to my surroundings, but study them - it's surprising how much information you can absorb.
Posted
Sensible advice, I absolutely agree that it’s not always necessary to paint at the scene, photographs can be a great aid to the artist... when used as a reference tool only!
But, because of the restraints of working outside, time, weather, changing light etc, I certainly find that my work has a more spontaneous feel or look to it, which frankly I prefer.
A good balance of both can be the answer, I often like to work up larger studio pieces from small plein air sketches, I’ve then got the best of both worlds. It certainly helps if you’ve actually visited the place.
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