Friday, February 26, 2010

Imaginary Landscaped in oil


Lauren Straughn

I took a picture of a street in my neigborhood and went from there. Oil was definitely a challenge I felt like I just kept smearing everything.

8 comments:

  1. I think you did a god job of not making the colors muddy, oils are hard to work with in a short period of time, too. Maybe though i think your colors are looking a little out of the tube?
    maybe also try making the farthet parts more neutral? the greens are so similar right now it is flattening out the image

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  2. The colors are little too obvious like the water is blue and plant is green. I want to see more various of colors, maybe think about atmosphere effects like weather and time. they can help this look more interesting. Also, I want to see more clear objects in the fore ground to make perspective.

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  3. even though its supposed to be a fantasy landscape. it would have served you well to paint colors from life.

    water is never blue. and trees just aren't that green.

    and the river twists like a roller coaster, maybe extending the composition horizontally would help?

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  4. Oh god oil and landscapes terrify me as well! But I gotta say Justin took the words right out of my mouth. Those colors are not true to nature. To help with the smudging maybe going in with a really fine detail brush to help things maintain line/shape?

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  5. I agree with Michelle - the green of the grass up close and the green of the grass far away are too similar. It helps to consider how the basic colors change within the composition... like yellow-green versus blue-green versus gray-green, etcetera etcetera. Also, it seems to start out from a normal, flat composition and then it appears to melt a little on the right side. Was that intentional? I like how you did the reflection on the water - that white spot. it definitely gets across that it's a river.

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  6. Brava for attacking oils so fearlessly. I agree with the comments above about the color. It's a little too local. It's not too late though. You can add glazes of complimentary colors to desaturate the object in the distance, and wipe out for light. Oil is a fairly forgiving medium.

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  8. sorry I accidentally posted that before i finished haha...
    anyway, If you've never worked with landscapes or in oil before, it might be a better idea to work from life, or if you have to, from photographs before jumping into creating an imaginary landscape. That way your colors will have more of a basis in reality instead of looking so generic. In order for an imagined landscape to be convincing, you have to have a really good understanding of how actual landscapes look.

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