Oil landscape – sunset

[Jake]

My first landscape in 20 years. Feedback welcome. I can see my brush strokes lack conviction, my brushes were variably loaded so there are different weights of paint, and I need to tighten the little bridge and posts on the pontoon, which I will do once the paint has firmed a little. I also muddied the colours in the centre a bit. I am on the fence about the yellow ochre in the left hand corner, while it was true the light was different in the photo, I think it is inconsistent with the rest of the painting, I’ll add some permanent orange into that to bring it more into balance I think. Any other suggestions and feedback appreciated.  It was a 4 hour painting, working initially from a photo and then putting that away to focus on what was in front of me.

 

[Romel Madray]

I am not an expert, but recently been studying composition but please take it as someone who is not an expert and in no means ill willed, I am just looking based on my efforts, so if I am incorrect it i not meant to be harsh.And so said feedback is welcomed.

1. The dark area on the left needs some clarification that it is a form, it is flat
2. The water needs some gradation to show less light as coming from the land
3. The focal point needs some defination of the form.
4. Lines wise the focal points point out of the painting
5. Some leaves on the tree and emphasis of the mountains in the background
6. Also is it a noon or sunset. The colors of the rocks make me make feel that it is sunset but the bright light suggests noon.
7. There is a clear almost abrupt value change in the water but not seeing the sun as the clouds are very yellow.

Regards

[Jake]

Thanks Romel, that’s great.  I’ll be tightening it up this week so will build these in.  Here’s the photo I took last month I used to work from. 

[Carlos Perez]

Hey jake i like that sunset mann and the values are working accordingly to the image as well.

However acknowledging your clear initial intention would help us giving you better feedback, I’d suggest Deciding the map of our image before picking a brush by replying to questions such as what do I want to convey out of this painting? is it a color study? is it a value study? is it a study of water or rather a focus on the sunlight? or as you mentioned it’s focus on the brushstrokes? and only working on that intention so that we can all give feedback on it.

There’s a   great course with bill Perkins on composition where he goes in deep about it. Super recommended.

[Jack]

Hello Jake – thanks for your sharing your painting. I’m very much the beginner of landscape, so don’t take my advice too seriously! 🙂

Firstly, you may find Fenske’s tutorial on the sunset light effect useful -> https://www.nma.art/videolessons/introduction-to-landscape-painting-part-8-light-effects/?course=318059

He also completes a longer demo here -> https://www.nma.art/videolessons/introduction-to-landscape-painting-part-24-sunset/?course=318059

As for my own observations, naturally they’re entirely conditional on whether decisions you made were for aesthetic reasons. Anyway:

• Two key components to a sunset light effect are a bit off in your painting. (1) During sunsets, clouds are lit from beneath, with the side/upper planes in shadow, a reverse of daytime conditions, and (2) there’s a significant gradient effect in the sky that shows a shift in colour. Both of these feature in your reference photo. Especially the colour change, from blue, to green, to violet. For me, your clouds lack form and design – which is crucial as sunset lighting commands a lot of attention.
• The background mountains are too light in value, too saturated and include too much contrast. It causes them to compete with the light sky.
• I think the broken brushwork has colours that don’t harmonise well as they’re too saturated- the red in the water, for instance, is very intense, and the yellow around the pillars. There are even greens in there. That’s not to say you can’t have various colours in the water, only that it might be more pleasing if they were less out-of-the-tube, and more neutral.
• The tree on the right hand-side contains too many repeating shapes, like the Y-shaped branches.

Things you might consider for your next piece:

• Creating a really simple value plan. Use 5-7 values to describe your painting. This can help whilst you’re painting to ensure the design is interesting and that you’re maintaining your value hierarchy, and not painting things too light/dark. This can be done via thumbnail (which also helps you decide your composition), or sometimes I use pixlr to just draw simple diagrams over a reference photo. Like this:

• Another thing you might try, is mixing more neutral colours to try and achieve more colour harmony. Reserve your most saturated colours for specific moments. A simple, perhaps controversial(!) way of doing this, is to mix a ‘mud pool’ of any colour (I often use the leftover paint from my previous sketch, avoiding white as much as possible). Then add bits of this pool to every colour you mix, it ensures all your colours are slightly desaturated and shares a specific hue in common. I picked this up from Edgar Payne’s book. Worth experimenting with.

I did a quick (15 mins) postcode-sized painting using your reference photo, to see if my advice above was helpful – let me know if you fancy seeing it.

Good luck Jake!

 

 

 

 

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Jack.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Jack.

[Carlos Perez]

Woah jac I’m impressed by your rich feedback ::)

[Julia]

Wow Jac, great feedback ( I would love to see your postcard size sketch)

[Author]

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