[Nathan]

Hey there! First off, I just want to say that many of you Sijun members are absolutely incredible artists, and I greatly admire your works. I've been lurking for a while now, and I think I've finally mustered up enough courage to make a post. This one was a recent assignment for my painting class, and was pretty much my first still life paintings ever. (I've done a lot of still life drawings and conceptual paintings and such before.)
I know there's still a lot that can be worked on with this, but I'm mentally finished with it for the time being. Now I'll quit boring you and show the picture. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

(Acrylic on canvas)

[theodeluxe]

Have you been painting with acrylics lots?

I just got my first set of acrylics and damn I tell you, everythin I do looks worthless, traditional media and I do not cope at all!

So, respect to you, I like the specularity on the fruits, good job on that, nice highlights. Only thing that looks dull in my eyes is the cloth in the backdrop, just doesnt look real.

keep learning, and so shall I.

-t

[jfrancis]

I think you might be "locking in" on the local color of the object a bit too much, and not changing values enough. Go darker with your darks.

http://www.digitalartform.com/values.htm

[Nathan]

Theodelux-
Thanks for comments! I completely agree with you about the cloth. If I get in the mood again, that'll be the first thing I work on. I've done a few acrylic paintings before, and I got a tablet recently, but haven't gotten comfortable enough with it yet.

Jfrancis-
I understand what you're saying. The room that I was working in had a large window. (hence the sky-blue highlights on the apples, etc) But it was also lit by fluorescent lights like the kind found in office buildings. It was frustrating to me that those lights pretty much killed all the darks in that scene. Next time I'll choose a setting with much more dramatic lighting. And thanks for that info on values! That'll definitely help me out next time.

[Teeb Thoj]

I agree that the cloth does look kinda weird. But I give you mad props for using traditional media in your work. I suck with acrylics (color in general), and I'm still practicing. Keep up the good work!

[Spunkmeyer]

This is a good first try.
A book that really helped me was "The acrylic Painting Book" by Wendon Blake. (sorry too lazy to search) It has really straightforward step by steps.

[Nathan]

Thanks Teeb Thoj. I've been doing a lot of digital art before, but it was all done with a mouse and was mainly for textures and such for my 3d art. I'm meaning to get into more digital fine-art with my tablet, but haven't done anything too serious yet. Just a few sketches... Maybe I'll post them to the speedpainting thread sometime.

Spunkmeyer - Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll definitely look for it next time I'm in a book store.