Still life and Landscape Oil Paintings

[Josseline Jeria]

I wanted to share these recent oil paintings I’ve made the past two weeks. I applied some of the concepts and techniques I learned from Bill Perkin’s Color Bootcamp and Juliette Aristides’s A Realist Approach to Drawing and Painting.

I struggled most with the still lives, as I wanted to work with natural lighting, but came to find that it changes more often that I realised. Regardless, they were a good challenge. The landscapes were painted from photos I took almost two decades ago.

Overall I tend to struggle with my values, saturation levels and not getting overwhemled with all the subtle colour temperature changes I see.

Any feedback and critique is appreciated. Keep creating all!

[Joshua Jacobo]

Nice work! Thanks for submitting. Hope to get you critiqued soon!

[Josseline Jeria]

Thanks Joshua

This was my initial post 🙂 I submitted another, both were blocked, but the second one was unblocked before this first one. I’ll post the other images I shared on the other so there’s at least consistency across both.

 

[Josseline Jeria]

To clarify, the second post I tried to load and was unblocked, which is already on this forum, has all four of the paintings I wanted to share. This one only has one of them. Probably best if anyone sees this to head to that post, titled the same as this one, so that I don’t have to reshare the paintings here. Cheers

 

[craigmullins]

Hi Josseline,If you concentrate more on the basic spherical nature of the fruits, it might be helpful.  Maybe put some spheres there in stead of fruit, at least in the beginning.  All that complexity hides their more basic nature.

So break it down this way, what local color is the fruit?  Say it to yourself, as an HSB idea.  The base color of the left fruit is a medium value, pretty intense yellow green.  OK, in a neutral environment, which this is (no real strong environmental color casts) lets take that basic local color and shift it 2 steps lighter, and then 2 steps darker.  That is your lit and shaded side.  At the same time, change the hue a little bit of both lit and shaded side.  Doesn’t matter which way you go, just make it so the lit and shaded side are not exactly the same hue.

So now look at the top and bottom of your object.  If you look at mine, you see the top surfaces go a bit cooler.  The bottom surfaces go a bit warmer.  This correct for this environment, but you could reverse it and still have light and color.It is so important to look at the value, hue and saturation as separate things.  Analyse and decide on them independently of each other.So now you have a variety of hues and values all derived from the first, most basic local color/value.When you apply these to your shapes, RESIST the urge to blend them.  If they are the RIGHT values, they can exist as flat shapes just fine.  Look at the fruit in mine that is in the back.  If you zoom out, it does read (I hope).  Years ago people learned to paint with gouache first, before oils, to prevent blending.  This placed more emphasis on the correct shape, value and hue, in that order.Of course if any of this contradicts what your teachers of said, please follow their instruction!

 

 

 

 

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Craig

Firstly, thank you for being so generous with this feedback, and additionally including a drawing to help compliment what you’ve critique.

Understanding the objects as more basic shapes at the beginning I think will help a lot. I used the comparative method to get the drawing in, but reflecting back it does make me think of the object directly, rather than simplifying it even more, which I think I need to focus on more given where my skills level is currently at.

So many elements of my painting process that I can see more clearly now is that I am not focusing enough on simplifying as much as what I could and should be.

I will make sure to do as you suggest to shift the values a bit more in each direction when working with a similar ambient kind of lighting setup. Do you have a preferred way to approach the order which you apply for painting the background vs. foreground vs. objects for still lifes? I painted the back and foreground first, followed by one object at a time, and then made a few adjustments to the back and foreground (so in total 5 shorter separate sessions).

I made myself look too specifically at each bit of colour hue, value, saturation and temperature shift I saw for all and each and every one of the most smallest of changes in the vegetables, which I found very overwhelming. As such, I began to get muddled up and became a bit lost with it all. This manner of approaching application of paint I obtained from Mark Carder from Draw Mix Paint. I think given that I was painting this from life without a strict  and stable lighting situation made that task more difficult and possibly overall too specific of an approach for me.

I will absolutely repeat to myself again and again when I paint to see each element of colour independently. I started off that way, but again got lost in the process. Would 1) value, 2) hue 3) temperature 4) saturation be an ohk order to analyse?

Oh, the blending part – yes absolutely resist! What I found happened was that if I didn’t get a colour right, I would apply paint on top to correct it, but in doing this I spread it over rather than being incredibly deliberate if I wanted to keep painting that area alla prima (which is what I wanted to do for this painting). Then to correct that spreading I ended up moving the paint more again than I know I should and argh! the frustration. I will keep fighting that urge.

Thanks for letting me know about how previously gouache was used to learn. I can absolutely see how it  would teach you to be deliberate with each and every stroke you make. I don’t currently have gouache but I do have some acrylics. I could try those out, given they dry quickly, it could function somewhat similarly.

I wasn’t overall I wasn’t happy with the painting, the back and foreground bothered me most. I had to move onto something else to not permit and allow myself to feel entirely defeated by this still life. Nevertheless it was a valuable exercise, as each and every painting is.

Thanks again for your feedback!

P.s. I just finished watching Iliya’s critique of your painting. I actually saw it earlier in the forum and I was floored by it. I couldn’t bring myself to leave a comment because all I could have said was this is brilliant! and not anything constructive, which is what I know we need as artists.
Anyway, I thourougly enjoyed the video critique, I learned so much from it. Thanks for sharing your incredible piece with us all.

[Chris_Legaspi]

Hi Craig, you’re feedback is a condensed painting course in a paragraph. I had to read several times and will continue to re-read to remind myself. This is where I’m at now and reading this and seeing your work is a constant reminder:

“When you apply these to your shapes, RESIST the urge to blend them.  If they are the RIGHT values, they can exist as flat shapes just fine. “

Thank you for your time and generosity.

[Josseline Jeria]

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