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Hi Dan 🙂
I really like your watercolour piece. Nice complimentary colour scheme and variations in temperature in the figure. If you want to push the figure more, you could include even more subtle temp variations. The background competes with the figure. You could either go for a less saturated and/or more neutral background, to keep the figure as the more saturated/chromatic aspect of the painting. Or you could make the background more saturated, so that the figure looks more neutral in comparision, so that the interplay of temp variations are more subtle. Depends on what you want to say with the image. I like breaking down pieces where the focus is on chroma in main groups, eg. in this case – background, figure, clothing. I would differ the overall saturation level for each group. So eg. strongest in the clothes, less in figure, least in background; strongest in background, less in clothing, least in figure, etc.
Hope this helps.
Josseline,that’s very helpful thank you. I’m new to color theory so your feedback is very much appreciated. I hope to get more advice from you in the future.
best,
Dan
You’re welcome Dan 🙂 Colour theory is one of my loves and something I want to continue developing further. Much of what I’ve learned was through Bill Perkin’s Colour Bootcamp course on here – it is fantastic! If you’re unable to subscribe that this stage, it would be worthwhile to do the 7 day trial and check it out. Perhaps save it for when you have a week that you can devote a lot of time to make the most of it.
I try as best as I can. I’m not very experienced and always feel unsure of what I’m saying is useful or right etc. but I want to help if I can.
I’ve actually been a member here for about a year. I initially joined because I wanted to learn figure drawing from Glenn Vilpuu, I never had a desire to paint until I saw Steve Huston’s sketchbook course. I picked up a brush for the first time a few months ago and I am currently studying the Color Theory Boot Camp course as well:-)
I saw your work btw…stunning.
Hi Dan. Nice work on the portrait. I like how you captured her personality. Although It seems like your darkest darks and your lightest lights are not strong enough. I think it’s the only thing that is missing in order to make it read everything’s els such a proportions and shape are working. Maybe emphasize on line just a little bit to help contain the forms and to show overlaps. It doesn’t take much but I’ve added the lights and darks in areas such as corners and planes that are facing relatively up which would should revive most of the light. Hope this helps 👍
Ah my mistake, apologies. I saw participant but missed the subscriber part.
How have you found learning under Vilppu for figure drawing? I’ve started learning gesture with Gnass’ Spirit of the Pose. Really enjoying the course so far. AH yes I’ve worked through Steve’s sketchbook series, right up to the last gouache section. I don’t have any so I might do acrylics or watercolour. I struggle with watercolour as a medium – it’s less forgiving than oils. I came into art only wanting to paint, started learning to draw to improve my painting and now I am wanting to become a good draftsman alongside a great painter 🙂
Oh Perkin’s Colour course is one of my favourite’s I’ve done here! So so good. What part are you up to now?
Thank you very much!
Wow thank you thats very helpful. I’m struggling a bit with contrast and this draw over is very much appreciated.
And thank you for the compliment.
I benefited a lot from Vilppu’s course. The Spirit of the Pose looks like a terrific course here its just..as I’m sure you know, a bit overwhelming with all the amazing resources here so I’m trying not to do too much at once.
With regards to watercolor/Gouache I find that yes they can be used interchangeably but theyre actually quite different. The particles in Gouache is much thicker so depending on the amount of water used it can be more like Acrylic than watercolor. What I did was start with a tube of black just to do value studies and see how I liked the medium and shortly after bought a set because I found it much more forgiving than watercolor.
As for Perkins I’m on level 1 Complimentary colors. Outstanding course. I’ve learned why my skin tones always look sunburned. ( Too high chroma :-))
I’m sure I’ll be spending years studying that course alone.
I appreciate your time very much and look forward to getting free advice from you again..:-)
Best,
Dan
Oh yes it is a challenge to not over commit yourself with all the content that’s available.
Yeah I’ve heard that’s the case. I might consider getting some b&w gouache for value studies. Do you find it is economical? I have a few W&N cottman watercolours but I really do not enjoy using them, they’re not good quality, so I find it difficult to have the drive to get them out.
Oh it’s fantastic. I’ve said this dozens of times everywhere, but I will continue doing so. I really enjoy Bill’s teaching style as well. It suits my temperament.
Oh yes it is something that you can cover and recover for years and years. I finished the course end of last year but I’m finding I’m having to now start regoing over the content. I put together a workbook for all the coursework, so that’ll help a lot with this.
You’re welcome! I am limited in my abilities to give feedback, but I try my best.
Cheers
Windsor Newton is one of the top brands I’m surprised to hear your paint isnt good quality. Perhaps it was left in direct light and dried out? Either way I wouldnt worry about it based on what Ive seen of your work I think you should just keep doing what youre doing because its fantastic.
The reason I use watercolor/Gouache is simply because its so easy to set up and at the learning stage I want to keep things simple in the work space.
I think it is because it is student grade. Because I have been working with professional grade oil paints for many months now, my sense of pigment is reasonable, so far less load is quite evident. I understand watercolour does, but it seems low for watercolour. I have them away from light, so I don’t think it would be a contributing factor. I would like to get another set of tubes because as you mentioned, it’s so much easier for setting up, and the cleanup! Oil painting requires a lot of time for this, which makes painting on a daily basis for study in practical.
Oil is my goal once I have a basic understanding of color. I’m just cautious because i know it can be somewhat dangerous with fumes and overall toxicity.
I would strongly suggest Gouache over watercolor for you…I cant speak from experience but others like Proko say its great practice for oil. There is a YouTube video ( sorry I dont think I can attach it) where he does a Gouache portrait of Santa Claus and speaks on the medium. You’ll see that very very little water is used.
That’s a good idea. I had some experience with acrylics before going to oils, but very little colour theory. I jumped in too quickly because of keenness.
Yeah it can be. I don’t use any turpentine or mineral spirits with my oils, so that helps a lot. I just use mineral spirits to clean my brushes.
Ah that’s a good point. I will have a search for the video – I haven’t watched it. Thanks for the recommendation.
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