Community Art Critique Thread

tall73

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See important guidelines at bottom of first post!

Most of the time in the Visual Arts section we post paintings just to show off our latest work. And it is fun to have people to share with, and discuss art with.

However, some of the times I have learned the most is when I submit art for critique by others. When we have spent so much time immersed in creating art it can be hard to see things that are obvious to others. And some have knowledge of techniques or best practices that we do not.

So in an effort to help each other learn this thread is to post work you want people to critique.

Important guidelines

When posting a critique be sure to share both what you like and do not like about the painting in question.


Try to be specific. If the person can not tell what you think could be improved, they will not benefit.

The goal is to encourage growth. If you are going to point out something that is an issue then go on to give constructive ways to resolve the issue.

For example, if I was looking at a piece and the values were washed out I might suggest starting next time with a mid-tone background value to knock-out the white and immediately have a comparison for dark and light values. If it is a digital piece I might suggest a levels or contrast adjustment. If it is a watercolor piece I might suggest dry brushing or glazing some darker tones in to give more volume and stronger values.

Do not be harsh in your critiques. Everyone starts somewhere, and everyone can improve.

Realize that some things in art are subjective. There may be best practices, but there may also be many exceptions. Don't present your view as the only way to do it.

Usually a painting or drawing done in traditional mediums, and sometimes even in digital, are hard to change once finished. So the point is to take away lessons to apply to future works more than to fix the current.


 

tall73

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Submitting the first one here:


Digital painting done on a Nintendo 2ds XL with Colors 3d, with adjustments in Corel Photopaint.

This video shows the process of painting in case you have particulars on brush technique, etc.

Colors! Live - Loner by tall73

312334_160caa96640203c63fa806fd9633521c.PNG
 
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Chris V++

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Great idea for a thread. Loner is hard to criticize. It has atmosphere, texture, a sound composition. I'd only recommend increasing contrast with lighter lights, maybe around the sun and the lower sky line, and maybe highlights. The warmth and subject remind me a little of a Rembrandt landscape.
 
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tall73

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Great idea for a thread. Loner is hard to criticize. It has atmosphere, texture, a sound composition. I'd only recommend increasing contrast with lighter lights, maybe around the sun and the lower sky line, and maybe highlights. The warmth and subject remind me a little of a Rembrandt landscape.


Thank you. The good part about digital is I can definitely try some of that without ruining the current image.

I was struck yesterday while glancing briefly at a wooden picnic table at just how strong highlights can be on even very dull objects. The light was hitting at just the right angle so that the entire top of the wooden plank table looked like a solid sheet of bright white.
 
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tall73

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Alright, here is another one. And I expect this to be more painful, because I know this image is fundamentally off. I just cannot tell why.

I talked to a few people about it already. The left eye of the dog, on our right, is likely high and to the right a bit. The collar is too tall as well, I think.

But for some reason when I look at the dog it reminds me of a person in clown makeup more than a dog. That is odd and strangely specific, but I still get that feeling.

312256_bf0408a80859744e33bfa480890349a8.png
 
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tall73

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312256_bf0408a80859744e33bfa480890349a8.png
dog redo sm.png


After I posted that I decided to see if the collar was an issue. I thought it was too tall, and made the neck look constricted. I am not sure lowering it helped, but while I was doing it I also noticed something else. The left shoulder of the dog (on our right) was too large for the size of the neck. The new one (on the right) is a bit shorter because I made the collar smaller by shifting that whole lower portion of the image upward and then fixing the background.

Digital is fun!

I also moved the eye. Not the best editing job in the world, but for critique purposes it is fine.

Still seeing a clown though. And I am pretty sure it is more about the top of the head.
 
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312256_bf0408a80859744e33bfa480890349a8.png
View attachment 262327

After I posted that I decided to see if the collar was an issue. I thought it was too tall, and made the neck look constricted. I am not sure lowering it helped, but while I was doing it I also noticed something else. The left shoulder of the dog (on our right) was too large for the size of the neck. The new one (on the right) is a bit shorter because I made the collar smaller by shifting that whole lower portion of the image upward and then fixing the background.

Digital is fun!

I also moved the eye. Not the best editing job in the world, but for critique purposes it is fine.

Still seeing a clown though. And I am pretty sure it is more about the top of the head.
The shape of his mouth resembles The Joker from Batman which maybe is why he looks like a clown. Plus dog noses are clown like. I think the original looked great, except it's a tight crop. Maybe more space /atmosphere is needed.
 
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tall73

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The shape of his mouth resembles The Joker from Batman which maybe is why he looks like a clown. Plus dog noses are clown like. I think the original looked great, except it's a tight crop. Maybe more space /atmosphere is needed.

I agree on the framing. That is one of the drawbacks of using such a small device. It has a lot of positives for me in that it is forcing me to do whole scenes and pay more attention to how I frame things. But there is a limit to how small you can go with the brushes, and sometimes I just can't fit it in the space and get the detail.

And then, sometimes I just start laying in shapes and get it too big to start with, and rather than star over I keep going. I restarted the truck painting three times, and still wound up with tight framing. But I need to learn the lesson to slow down. I love that initial laying in shapes phase, and it all just flowed quickly. But if I don't take time to get it right then it wastes way more time later, and might not be something you can fix.

Now I am considering doing some acrylic painting. If I ever get around to it having a huge canvas to work with might be great. On the other hand it also is not adjustable in size.

I think I learned some bad habits early on. I didn't start with any training, just learning on forums. Initially I started with forum signatures, which have very small size requirements. But when I started digital painting I would just make a huge canvass, paint what I wanted, then crop it to fit.

Thanks for taking a look!
 
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