glen urquit castle by Jennifer Gornall

Hi Jennifer, actually the castle in the mid ground and the reflections are really well painted, good detail, colour and texture, you have created good depth with the shadows. The sky is also very well painted. My only critisum is the background is the same depth of colour as the midground and the distant hills on the right hand side are even darker. These should recede back with lighter colour shades and blue tones. Hope this helps, I'm sure other will add to my comments.

Jennifer, have a look at one of my painting - No Milk Today, that may help, or even try copying it, as it was an exercise from another artist subject. But do it in your style.

Is this actually Urquart Castle (or something like that!) on the shores of Loch Ness? I expect my spelling is wrong, but I know that yours is: so I imagine you didn't paint this from life but from a photograph, and that's probably where and why you've encountered problems. Photos equalize, ie "bland out", shadows and contrasts. You need to identify the light source - where it's coming from, what shadows it will cast. You've tried to do that here with just colour; it works up to a point, but only up to a point, and that's why your castle is getting lost in the painting. If you've never been to the scene you're painting, you need to imagine a light source and calculate where the shadows would fall: they'll give you structure. Better still, go to the site and observe it, photograph it, make sketches of it. You have a harder task if you've never seen the site in the flesh, but put a sun in there, even if only in your mind's eye, and see where the light takes you, what shadows it makes, and use them to establish the forms of the castle.

THanks folks for your help ,thank you peter for being kind i will have a go at your painting any help is greatly apreciated . Robert your spelling looks more like it than mine , not my strong point . I have been to visit the castle a few times . My sister runs a b+b in inverness ,but this picture is from a photo my son in law took in october .when we went to my nieces wedding . He said it would be a challange and he wasn't joking ,not giving up on it though will keep you posted .

peter how do ifind your painting tried putting you name in the search engine no joy there .