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You guys have been such an inspiration to me---have finally started drawing & painting again!!!
Haven't done much in the last 18 years---always too busy with something else & didn't have the time or the desire to be creative.
This is my first in all these years. I think it needs some more work--but I am my own worst critic!
What do you think? And please don't hold back with the criticism!
I would advise you to do what I've done/ am doing. Pick up a couple of classes at a nearby comm. college, or art studio. It will help you develop your style with subjects that you would never consider drawing and make you explore different mediums. I was the same as you - didn't pick up a pencil for years, other than telephone doodling, and when I did draw, it was pencil only.
The net is also a great place for inspiration. When I look at your drawing, it reminds me of these guys - http://www.elfwood.com/art/gallery1.html , it shares the same drama, I guess. Fantasy art is a really big field.
Holdingggg...holdingggg...Hey wait a minute I have no criticism to hold back!!
That is a beautiful drawing...first in eighteen years!!
Wow I wish I had that kind of talent!
Never said I hadn't studied art---just said I haven't been doing much with it.
My pencil drawings are usually a precursor to a painting that I plan to do. This one is one I have been toying around with in my mind for a while, not sure it will make it to canvas but testing my shading techniques & human figures.
My favorite animal to sketch & paint are usually horses. And, YES, I plan to get back into my art again!
Have this pic posted in another forum---this is what I have been doing to satisfy my "Art Fix" for the last few years---wood-burning.
I can take my time with this. With a painting I feel that I can't stop once Iv'e started!!!! If I get into a painting, I won't stop until it is finished---some-times for days on end. Getting a little old for that!!! LOL!!!
P.S.
Please don't think I'm cocky! Would not have posted this if I didn't want some input!!!!
Hadn't thought of that. Have only looked into the Marketplace once & didn't pay too much attention then.
Problem with that is, Hubby wants to keep everything I do, doesn't want me to sell it. Running out of space on my walls!!! LOL!!!
Critters are my favorite subjects!
It's an excellent sketch, Loren. I've been in a drawing funk a while too.
I think if you're going to base a painting on it the only thing you might want to experiment with is see if you can get the darkness of her head framed with light, like the sky, for instance, and the whiter area of her body contrasted more with the darker value of the water.
That might mean fooling with the skyline and ocean a little, perhaps move the skyline down some, and increase the amount of dark ocean area.
Few gulls wouldn't be amiss either. Add a bit more interest to the sands and/or sky.
My paintings have changed in style along with my whims in decor---change decor---change paintings!
Have some-what of an eclectic decor now, little bit of this---little bit of that.
Been remodeling the house into my version of the Tuscan style---not sure my art work quite fits, but still working on it.
P.S.
These paintings are in a bedroom not seen by visitors!
Melissande,
Thanks for your input---only using the pic of girl as a study in form & shading, background didn't really mean anything to me,just
a frame for the picture to give it a little more interest.
Have been working so hard on the remodeling of our home that I haven't had any time to do any painting---time to get some ME TIME!!!
Have been itching to do some new paintings. Have new canvases stacked up, collecting dust but can't seem to find the time to paint---always something else more important!
Wish I could just say to H with all of it & do what I want, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way! NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN A DAY!!!!! LOL!!!
I like the saying that we all find the time to do what we most want to accomplish. When your desire to paint becomes greater than your desire to accomplish those other things (and gain whatever reward those other things give you,) you will make the time to paint.
Simple, but profound too.
Weigh the rewards of each, and you might decide the reward of having accomplished the finished painting, the pride and love of the image, your own, captured forever in whatever media you prefer,outweighs everything else.
For instance, right now, my desire to sleep tops everything else, because I keep hoping when I wake the #$%^&!!! headache will be gone!
I like to work on paintings in my mind for a long time before I do them. You know,decide the colors, the details, any special techniques I might like to try to do. In your case, you could do something a bit special with the water. A see-through wave, for instance, or a spectacular lighting arrangement. The figure a little dark against a brilliant sunset or sunrise...I can waste months thinking through things like that, looking at photos for ideas, imagining different colors...for me the colors almost always come first. I like oils. What do you like?
Thanks to everyone!
Have finally started working on a painting that I've been meaning to do for years---have it posted here under new painting/horses.
Took some very good advise---started using some time to do "what I wanted"! It feels good to get back into it!!!!
Still don't work on it as much as I'd like---but it's a beginning!!!!
Used to do a lot of portraits as well as animals, want to get back into all of it again! Now that our home is almost remodeled I am finding more time to do what I want---but still not enough!!!!
Working on the "Horse" painting right now. Still having a problem with finding the time to JUST paint!
Too many other things that require my time right now, but plan on getting a start on some paintings & offering them up for sale when they are done.
It's been a long time comming, but I feel it's time!!! (Better Late than Never!!!)
Painting is still a little rough--working on it as I have the time. This horse is just a very rough shape to fill in a a later time.
Quite nice. I'd like to see the distant mountains softened a bit though. Both the colors and shapes of things in the distance are normally softened by the intervening atmosphere (so that colors tend to shift and shadows lighten)
Also you can use sharpness as a way to direct the eye to thefeatured item (which I presume in this case will be the horse). The eye will look where there's the most detail. If the detail all over the entire picture is equally acute, it leaves the viewer a little overwhelmed, trying to look at everything at once.
What will the color of the horse be when it's finished?
Know the background is a little stark for the pic---admit got a little carried away with it as the first in many years, tend to forget some things after so long!!!!
Just got carried away with painting!
Still---like bold colors & the feeling that you are actually there in person---not in a faded out painting.
Please don't take me wrong in this---just my perspective.
(P.S.) First horse will be a roan, second will either be a white or palomino.
It's fine. It's your painting! I tend to forget that not everyone is going for a realistic look. I'm always all for realism.
You might enjoy studying up on color theory as it applies to distance--how colors shift as distances increase. It's why we have 'purple mountain's majesty' instead of green ones, even those mountains are covered with trees.
Enjoy. Sounds like the horses are going to be spectacular. I love a good roan!--M
Oboy, Pagancat, taking a class can be detrimental! Beware the student!!
One class, from an artist in a co-op, she'd trill into the studio, "Paint! Paint!!" and that was it. zero instruction.
Another class from a community college, the teacher had twenty paintings he'd done. "Which one shall we do tonight?" "OK, squeeze out about 1/4 teaspoon of ochre, and 1/2 teaspoon of viridian.." and everyone in the class would procede to paint his painting, "Put a straight line about one third the way up the canvass of cobalt blue..."
A friend is currently in a class in a college, says the teacher is a young punk, comes in late, cancels occasionally. Cost $300!
Some classes are great, but do talk to the teacher before you spend the money!!!
I like three to five day seminars, myself. Can be pricey, but you can at least get a lot of energy from such a class.
Feel like I need to apologize to you for the way I have taken some of your critisim.
I too, have had bad experiences with art classes----one thought he was a gift from God & we should copy every- thing he did!
Another---only studied in tequneque & we never did a painting the whole year.
And then another thought , as Malamola said---perfect messuring of the paints were the key to "The Perfect Painting"!!! (Never mind the subject!)
None of them gave us the creative freedom to be ourselves, & that, to me, is the whole thing about being an artist!!!!
BE YOURSELF & BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!
Creative freedom is wonderful, like writing, yet you need to know the alphabet, then spelling, then grammar, lol!
A friend who's taken care of her family(60 yrs old like me) is just getting back into Art. Her first class is really well in some ways, but the teacher shows up late or not at all, and has required a variety of expensive materials for a 'beginner' drawing' class. Pencil, charcoal and newsprint paper would be fine for the exercises he's giving. One was to draw a ball with one light shining on it. She learned a lot from doing that one drawing, and she said she started looking at light, shadows, modellin, and 3D shapes in a different way, seeing more. THAT is what a class is supposed to teach!
Freedom can backfire, in a college sculpture class, we students all whined and groaned so much at each exercise that the teacher said, "OK! For the next assignment, do anything you want! You have two weeks!" And most of the class replied, "DUH! I don't know what to do!" hahahahaha
Paint, paint, is one way to learn. Don't get stuck on one picture, go on to the next one. You can't learn or progress by watching CNN. I put away a painting perhaps too quickly and start the next one.
And I believe it's asking too much for a painter to be happy with each painting. Wowee. I have learned to sigh, OWELL!!! and tell myself the next one will be better.
Camillea, it's great that you're thinking of the next painting, and the next one after that! as they say, "You go, girl!"
One good trick is to photoshop the painting, flip it backwards. Make it black and white. Even flip the colors, make it into a color negative.
Do I yakk too much? sorry. Blablabla, I get carried away!
I totally understand the way you put learning the alphabet, I also dabble a little in writing.
I learned all about drawing & painting shadows in 7th grade art class, also 3D shapes---spent hours of practice doing speres, boxes, cylinders, etc., etc..
I never start a painting without thinking the whole thing through before beginning. Doesn't always mean it's going to end up the way I intended but If not, will let it set until I'm ready to go back & make it right!
"...thinking the whole thing through before beginning. " That's fine, that's how your mind works.
Do you think as you're doing little preliminary sketches? A line drawing, with no shading, a 'notan' meaning you break a picture down into solid black for darks, and white
I think of the things that I can draw out of my head, not looking at the 'thing' or a photo. Few, really! It takes work. I wanted to learn how to draw a certain sea shell called a Queen Conch. Many I've seen in paintings are lopsided, and just plain bad. I got one, and spent several hours drawing it from different angles. Then, it became a part of my image vocabulary.
I think this is why a meticulously copied photo still looks bad, because the miniscule mistakes are not creative, they're blunders. (I tend to speak bluntly, hey?) Here, I'm thinking of a copy of a portrait of Bob Marley I saw recently, that is really stiff and bad, but looks "just like" the photo. A picture on some internet blog, I was surfing. Beware time-eating surfing!!!
Start reading the bi-weekly emails by Robert Genn, and read the feedback by artists. If you get away from their occasional prattle about money, it's an excellent inspiration. Here's the latest. He's a Canadian who paints plein air, travels a LOT. And it's the only active conversation about art that I've found on the internet.
Ever since I was a child, have thought my art through before putting it to which-ever medium I had available to work with.
I can see the finished product long before I put it to paper. Have always done preliminary sketches of my work, just to see if it is what I want as an end product.
Yes, maybe I over think it & sometimes the end product isn't what I had in mind in the beginning but go with the flow & it tends to work out for the better. One of the blessings of being able to draw & paint, is the ability to change our work into what we want the other person to perceive!
One of my greatest inspirations was my grandmother. She traveled the world with my grandfather/ drew & painted some pics of thier travels/ collected some of the most exotic sea shells from around the world & sketched them for catalogs.
They used to visit once a year in Vero (Fl.) & she would take me out to pick wild flowers or whatever was blooming at the time, place them in a vase & show me how to draw them. This woman showed me how to shade long before I learned in class. At the age of ten I was shading with India ink with the dot system. Still one of my favorites!!!
When they finally decided to settle down to a life in one place, they settled in Lakeland, Fl., where she began her life as the President of the Laleland Flower Society. She also did all of the sketches at that time for their pamphlets. Wish I had some of them now to show you guys!
Not bragging---well, maybe a little---but trying to say---I was taught---in more ways than one!!!!
Not quite sure how to take some of your criticisms, but since I posted here, need to deal with it! After all---I asked for it!!!
Just hadn't painted in so long & kind-a proud of the fact that I was getting back into it that I guess I was happy to have found a web site that I thought was all about artist!
Have never been a scenery artist---always did portraits & animals. Guess I should have stuck to same!!!
I am hoping that the criticisms you guys have been giving me have been with the best of intentions & there-fore have gone back to my original form of art. Shouldn't have gone into the unknown & untried!
As I said earlier in this thread ' I'm my own worst critic.'
I agree that Dave's isn't the best place to hold a discussion on art. Had a very nice lady that sent me to the right place.
Hubby was a little upset when I told him what I had done with this thread & asked that I don't give up on the paintings that I'm working on---let him know that I haven't!
Went into the web sites that you posted---agree, but sometimes critics can be too cruel & make a person want to give up on a project. Have to admit---that was me----have a little bit of a temper & couldn't find a way to express my feelings on what I thought was extreme criticism & trying to keep my temper in check.
No matter how much criticism any-one may give me---will still pursue my favorite pastime---Art!!!!
Haven't really been myself lately! Have a lot of personal problems going on & took some of the things that have been said here the wrong way!
I am not usually this thin skinned & criticisms are not always taken so hard! Again---sorry!!!
My art, is my first love!
Has been since I was about 4 years of age. Not that it would mean any-thing to you, but the first picture I can remember ever drawing was the end of Fury, where the black stallion stood on his hind legs. I would sit for hours, just drawing pictures of horses, in every stance & followed for years the moves & muscle tones of horses.
I also spent years of drawing faces, eyes, hands, feet, until I felt I had them right. I did pages, pages, & pages of them. I did all of this before I ever took my first art class in 7th grade----was well past my fellow classmates.
Not bragging (well---maybe a little), but have always had a natural talent. Just had the family hounding me all of my life to do something with my art that I just turned away from it altogether.
Have already given you too much info &should not have gone there!
Take it how-ever you want---& think what you want----!!!
Just starting to do pencil portraits...I've enjoyed your work...regardless of criticism, wether it looks like them or not, I'm enjoying and will continue to sketch...
Pencil is probably my favorite form of art---be it graphite or charcoal!
When I was young & couldn't afford the paints & canvases to do painting, I would spend hour upon hour doing pencil sketches.
I taught myself a lot of things with pencils.
Did you know, that if you do a good pencil sketch ( graphite) with all of the proper shading, that you can then go over the pencil with magic markers & turn it into a colored picture? It takes a little practice & a lot of magic markers, but it really works!! (Use the cheap markers---Permanent doesn't work.) Something about the markers seem to blend the pencil, but you have to be careful with the lighter colored ones. Turn the markers as you go & keep a paper towel handy to wipe off the excess graphite. Try it---you may be surprised at the results!
I incorporated the pencil, magic marker & India ink into a lot of my work that I had no problem selling.
Molamola , the fish looks like the toadfish we catch sometimes in Gulf of Mexico .The sponges look real , like I could touch them .
Camillia, to me ,the dust the rolling horse raises , is so realistic . I have trouble with dust and mist . I bet you could do a sunbeam through trees with mist . I couldn't .
Got side-lined from the oil paintings---now working with a partner in a concrete statuary business. (Check out Creative Concrete, in the yard art forum.)
Do have a big job comming up doing a wall mural for the business adjoining us--are going to allow me to paint a VERY large mural on their wall to promote both businesses.
The sunbeams aren't really that hard to do--depends on the medium you are using as to how to do it.
As far as the mist---easier if it's oils, because they take longer to dry, but mix a very little white with turpentine, for oils--- water for acrylics, (for acrylics you will need to work fast!!!!) Swirl the paint in a circular motion where you want to create dust & use a wadded up paper towel or cloth to absorb the excess paint. Try it out on a blank sheet of paper until you are happy with the results. Darker dust for dirt---use a little of the same color your soil is with water or turp until you have a very thin base color. Thinner paint sticks to thicker---rule of thumb.
Not trying to sound like a 'Know it all'!!!!
Am pretty much a self taught artist, as I didn't like what they tried to shove down my throat at school!!!
Was a little surprised to see some-one on this thread!!! Have to admit- I had forgotten about it until now----been a little busy.
Try what I said & let me know how it works for you.
Would also like to see some of your work if you don't mind posting it!!!
