Mollie January 4th, 2007 Mixed Media , Show Comments(0)

Yesterday morning I posted a picture of my progress on “Chivalry” along with the message below to a few artist LiveJournal groups, and below that are some of the responses I received! I’m always pleasantly surprised at how helpful some people are. I can’t wait until this weekend to dig in!

“… I really need to finish this piece, but it’s just not there yet, I think it’s missing something… Please comment and tell me what it needs and/or how I can polish it up.”

Responses:

aintesduck – Hm… It’s hard for me to say, because it’s not really my style, but I tend to think that the entire piece is too busy. There’s too many bright areas and too many dark areas, so there’s no “point of interest”, nowhere that your eye wants to rest on; I find my eyes going back and forth from the cat, to the castle, to the flowers, and all the other bright areas, without feeling that there’s any “focal point” or any obvious path that my eye should be following through the picture. I’m not really sure how I would fix that for this particular picture, sorry.

lin_chan – The cat really does draw more attention than it feels it should. And there is a lot going on. A good focal point might be a circular object, in place of the gold helmet. I like where it is, but not that I can’t readily see it. Maybe another thing to do is darken the other objects and brighten up the helmet? Just an idea. If you don’t see that working, don’t ruin it, I like the piece.

jaguarnoelle – Think it needs something in the upper left. Something peeking from behind that pink arch but on the left side of the arch, not the inside of the arch… I’m thinking something with some red and/or some vibrant green in it. Maybe an austere looking face either in that flower looking shape you’ve got there or the larger space at the top between the pink line and the flower shape. A big eyed but austere looking childs face might be interesting. Personally I think bats are cute so that wouldn’t balance it for me.
But you’re the artist.

qaamq - I don’t know if the image is faded online, but the best way to punch it up would be to exaggerate those dark areas, push the contrast. The way it looks to me, everything in the background just blends together too much. But, when it pops, it will look really cool. Good job.

phoenix_log - On a purely technical standpoint, the castle at the bottom is not given the same attention as the rest of the piece.

jwalk62 - The castle could be darker- more in the background. There tends to be a lot of light values twoard the midddle of the painting the and right side seems a bot lost. The eye in the right corner ia quite striking and any way to bring more attention to it would be great.

(I told you there were some really great, thought out responses here; to which I am eternally greatful.)

Mollie January 3rd, 2007 Painting , Show Comments(2)

I’m having some trouble with the stone bricks in the background, and at this point I’m not sure I’m going to be able to overcome them in time for the show deadline next Tuesday. I may have taken on more than I can chew with this one, but it’s a little exciting, and definitely motivating. Today I’m going to take a little time away from working on the drawing and search for some great flowering vines to add on top of the stones. Wish me luck, if I find the right flowers I’ll be able to overlay them and cover up the ugly stones.

I’m also looking for something else to finish off “Chivalry.” I’m open to ideas as to what it needs.

Mollie January 1st, 2007 Uncategorized Comments(0)

It’s been a productive week! I’ve been working on both paintings and the new drawing I mentioned in my last post. I don’t know if I’ll finish the second painting, but it’s been nice working on different things simultaneously because it’s allowed me to take a break from a piece without stopping my creative flow.

In “Knight” I’ve worked a bit more on shading the right figure’s costume, added crowns, and laid in a stone wall behind them. I still have a ton of work, and I’m not sure I can pull the stone to my satisfaction; but the painting finally has an overall direction.

In “Chivalry” I took out the bottom center knight (pasted in image) and replaced it with a castle, reworked some of the knight behind that, added the floating gown, added a kitten and some flowers (because it seemed unexpected), and some overall tweaks. I’m working on something in the lower left corner (you can ignore that for now hehe).

Lastly, a little update on the drawing.