[Julia]

The right middle should be lighter than I made it…now that I look at it 🙂 how to you post a small image? I don’t see how…feel free to delete above image

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Julia.

[Julia]

I actually think it is a good reference, you can design multiple shapes with it, I tried one version,  just as example…

[Julia]

Wonderful portrait, congrats!

[Julia]

Hi Jac,

I like the color and brushstrokes.
I think the main problem is the drawing … perspective of the book is off so squash is hanging over it ( the colors are nice tho).

The pink round shape (handle?) on the jug is looking odd ( I would loose it).
If the jug is transparent, see through  (inside of it) should be darker, that will help with highlights as well.

And there should be more shadow from jug.

Overall, very nice.

I am a student as well, so take my suggestions with the grain of salt 🙂

[Julia]

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

[Julia]

Some tips from his explanations:

• do not use any whites in shadows (and on the first stage as little as possible everywhere else except sky area)
• use open colors in the beginning  (thin layers), you can muddy it up at later stage
• Do not use green colors in the beginning (they will appear  later when you mix more colors in your first layer of open colors)
• cadmium red light color is very useful in painting greens
• very light sky (and bright blue) attracts too much attention in the painting , it’s often  better to make it a little darker in value and not very saturated if your focal point is something else then sky
• the value is most important, those bold colors have to have right value (to see values in different chroma colors often more difficult then in shades and tints)
• The shadows the top part of the tree is cooler, the bottom shadow will have warm reflective light from the ground. You can see how he uses blues on the top shadow and brown/red on the bottom shadow of the tree  in first layer
• do not paint any details in the beginning but rather find interesting shapes of light and shadows
• the darkest areas of the tree is not on the edges (or you will have a flat object) but on the ares between light and shadow (terminator).
• pay careful attention to the sky holes on the tree, generally they will have a bit lower value then near sky. Also the top of the sky holes will touch shadows of the tree (usually, not always).
• In this daytime scene the far plane is cooler (and often lighter) then front plane. The grass on the front is lighter then a tree and darker then sky.
• the shadow of the tree is warm by the trunk and getting progressively cooler away from the trunk
• start painting tree trunk with shadows and don’t use any white, use bright colors in light areas. When painting brunches, paint light on dark ares and darks in light areas.
  Hope is was helpful.

[Julia]

I just watched very interesting video on painting a tree https://youtu.be/yLYjZVqlw1o it’s in Russian but he paints it step by step. I am going to try it with his bold approach…

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