St ives Bay

This was the second picture i have ever painted (you can tell)

Keep at it, if this is only your second painting you are showing a lot of potential. Suggest you try big subjects, mastering colour in skies and seas. Practise drawing and perspective, both of which desert you a little bit in the far left corner where you have the windows in buildings sloping in more or less parallel lines. There are plenty of guides to perspective on the web, and books. Having done all that, tightened up your drawing, investigated colour, light and shade - which we've all had to do, and are still doing - adding all that to your obvious willingness to have a crack at a difficult subject, as this one is, I know you'll make real progress from here. Excellent as a second effort - believe me, my second effort was ghastly with a capital G....

I agree with all of the above - an excellent start to your painting career. I would just add...try not to cut the picture in half as you have with the jetty. Loads of potential though..well done.

I have to say that I really like the jumble of buildings of the village. The way you have done them gives that lovely feeling of them tumbling down the hill towards the water. While Robert and Suzanne are giving very sound advice, I think at this stage you need to be guided by your heart rather than technique. Technique will come, but first there is that excitment of the subject and the paint and letting your enthusiasm shine through. To me, paintings which get bogged down with accuracy and technique seem to lose something along the way - I would far rather see vibrancy and excitment and hang whether it is accurate or not. Keep going as you have that feeling which is necessary to produce attractive and interesting work.

Totally agree with Thea; an exciting vibrant painting and an excellent effort for only your second one. Keep that vibrancy going; enjoy the process and learn bit by bit along the way without getting bogged down by technical details. My only hopefully helpful comment here would be that your three anchored boats are almost in a straight line, move them about a bit, change the angles of them and remember to add shadow under them so they sit IN the water rather than on it. Apart from that, very well done. I would be proud if that was only my second painting. I love the jumble of buildings and the arches in the sea wall.

Thankyou for all your comments - it has made me want to paint more - i nealy gave up because of comments from family and freinds. So comments from you all are much appreciated.

Don't you dare give up! You have all the makings of a good painter. There's a lot of good advice for you here, and I agree with Thea and Diana that technique is the servant of inspiration - but it can still be a good servant; provided you don't get too obsessed with it, technique can be rewarding in itself. The more you paint the more you'll learn, so don't let negative comments put you off. If you didn't have something worth encouraging, no one would be commenting on your work on this site - tell 'em that at home!