Koi pond 70×47 in oil

[Edgar R]

Hey, just finished this one and thought about sharing it and getting some comments and critiques

[Romel Madray]

Lovely

[Carlos Perez]

Hey Edgar .  i like it , i looks fancy, the matrix  reads pretty strong and clear and I love that effect  on the water.

On my opinion i feel less movements and rocks  at the right top would give  a better simple against complex relationship

i feel the composition wants my eye at the yellow fish but after that, i don’t get where else my eye should go

I feel a color relationship between the green bottom and the yellow fish and a contrast between the blue top and the orange fish but the white kois feel strange.

[Edgar R]

Hey Carlos,

Thanks for the feedback I really appreciate it!!

Edgar

[Daniel Norris]

I’m late to the party, but I had a thought or two, so I figured I’d share it. First off, this is amazing. I aspire to one day paint anything remotely this aesthetically pleasing. I like the tonal dynamic shift from the light in the top left toward the dark in the bottom right. Creates a lot of interest. The high contrast in intensity between the fish and the rocks is stunning. It just refuses to be ignored. Love the positioning of the fish, all moving toward a similar point, but each at a different moment in their procession towards it. Creates an easy, natural feeling to the composition.

(The following is just based on my intuition. I couldn’t paint what you painted to save my soul, lol. Just clarifying that, before I proceed…)

Regarding the water, a couple of thoughts. If you are intending a stylized look, I think you achieved it in a pretty interesting way with those almost sine-wave-esque curves in the wind-blown ripples on the surface of the water. If it’s intended to be a bit more realistic, I would suggest that water does not tend to pile up in those tight bunches of wavy ripples.

One other thought that’s probably more compelling in my mind, versus the shape of the ripples: The fish almost appear to be skimming above the surface of the water. I believe that this is due to the fact that those same wind-blown ripples appear to dance around the fish, versus passing over the top of them. Each of the fish ends up with what is essentially a thick, dark outline where you’ve worked the ripples around the fish, instead of carrying those forms over the top of each.

To be fair, it wasn’t immediately obvious. I had my wife look, and it wasn’t clicking, until I asked her “Spatially, where do the fish look like they are positioned in relation to the water,” and she immediately said “on top of it.”

Hope that helps!

[Edgar R]

Daniel,

Thank you and your wife for your imput, yes I see it now, I will try to fix it by painting some reflections and ripples on the fishes to try an “push” them in the water 😀

[Daniel Norris]

If you make any updates, post it, would you? I feel invested in this now! 😀

[Author]

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