[Thanatos]

My first peice in my AP art concentration... My concentration is on myself. You'll notice there's two of me, that's kind of like showing the two sides of me or something. *shrugs* It means something to me but something totally different to someone else, right?

I am by no means a photographer, and by no means is my digital camera a good replacement for seeing the peice in person. The camera seemed to make all the colors more yellow... Granted, my skin is more yellow than most white people because I'm half Korean but not this yellow.



My right hand was cut off when I took the picture... oops. You'll also probably notice that my right arm is too big, I'm going to shave a little off the top and bottom when I go into the backround this weekend. (I indicated little marks on the painting to where it should be but you can't see that)

But that's kind of where I'd like some advice, I'm kind of unsure what to put there. My art teacher suggested a raw sienna first, and then maybe some highlights or something.

Also... It's not just me, right? That pant leg looks REALLY screwed up. I'll probably redo that, it was a last minute addition.

[ September 20, 2002: Message edited by: Thanatos ]

[Walkaer]

wow! You have very much skill for someone of your age! Ahh, I remember my AP concentration. . .

Right -- so back to YOUR piece. heh

In terms of the pant leg, I think the problem comes from these three things:

I. The purple skin tone is about the same color as the background -- and though my brain tells me it's part of your arm (thanks to the strong sense of structure that you've set up ) my eye pushes it backwards towards the background.

II. The knee looks like it's pointed to much towards the viewer so that your leg is twisted inward. I suggest shifting it to the right.

III. As in the previous point, the color of the pant leg is very close to your skin tone and it looks kind of funny :P. It looks like an interesting problem to play with (perhaps you did it on purpose?).

You very masterfully captured the expression in the faces. Well done ^_^.

IV. Looking over the picture again, it seems to me that *your* right hand on Mr. Red Shirt is a little hard to read.

Your cloth is very...clothlike. Especially on the blue shirt. Nice

Overall, this piece is very good. I'd like to see it when it's finished!

--Walkaer

[ZippZopp]

thats a very nice piece you have goin there!! what size is it? and also, is that oils or acrylics? You've done a very nice job rendering it all...keep it up!

[jr]

your skin tones are really very chalky, you also need to work more on your edges and transitions. the figures look like cut outs. don't just look at the shade and tone of the figures, look at the form, sculpt it with the paint!

[Thanatos]

Thanks for the comments... I'll try to take a look at all that Walkaer. The backround color will almost definitely change.

jr...
thanks for the comments but... How would I approach getting less chalky-looking skin tones? What should I concentrate on when trying to "sculpt" with the paint? I'd really like more detailed feedback. I'm a greedy little bastard and I want money from colleges. ;P

This is an oil painting, ZippZopp. The painting is 18x14 (I think)... It won't fit in my sanner.

[Walkaer]

hm...well, I personally don't think your skin tones look all that chalky, maybe a little to pastel...ly.

To get a very chalky visual texture, layering a thin film of white paint usually does the trick (beginners often try to lighten and darken by first painting color and then going back over with white and black) -- and it doesn't look to me that you did that (besides, it's more of an acrylic technique, anyway).

Last year I actually worked at sucking the white paint out of my color mixing -- it turns out that I had used white to desaturate my colors when I was first learning how to mix, consequently my colors were of varying degrees of pastel and I didn't even notice (admittedly it wasn't all that bad of a problem, but it took effort to keep from adding white to tone down my colors). You may want to pay close attention to just how much white you *really* need to put in there.

But then again, that may not be the problem at all -- perhaps it's just poor digital image quality or light reflecting off of the surface of the canvas :P.

Hope this helps ^_^

--Walkaer

[ September 21, 2002: Message edited by: Walkaer ]

[Thanatos]

If I had more than one color of blue on hand I wouldn't have used white where I did... the blue shirt. ;P

On the red shirt I was fortunate enough to have a bright red. (Cadmium Red)I was using brown to darken it... My art teacher would have broken my neck if I used black. Well, that's an exaggeration. Instead to get the closest thing to black I mixed blue and brown to get my hair color.

But yeah, black didn't touch the canvas... White did only because I was at a loss for a birght blue color. I was originally going to make my back right red too but I decided that'd get way too confusing. Oh I used white for my eyes and a couple really small highlights on my red shirt hand.

I'm trying to stay away from using white, It's just really hard to figure out a good way to make highlights.

And yeah, as I already stated my camera screwed up some colors. I'd use my scanner if it fit... because it has better quality than my camera.

[Walkaer]

heh. yeah. my art teacher was the same way (at least for black).