Reply To: 8×10 in oil of Santa Barbara- WIP- would love critiques!!

[Jim Fitzgerald]

Great job! I like it!

Since it is a critique, the only thing I’d suggest is to possibly make a minor value adjustment. I realize that it might also just be how jpgs look on different different monitors, but to me it appears that your lightest value “masses” are on the right and left edges; they definitely pull my eye.

It’s not a whole value step (ref: a 9-value scale following Munsell with black = 1 to white = 9) , and may just be a quarter to a half value, but it’s definitely there. I know they’re (the masses) not white in the original but they’re large enough to notice, and with the dark-light roof line contrast on the right and the brighter spot on the left, I can’t stop looking.

I might knock them down a little (again, 1/4 -1/2 value or whatever it is in reality). I used your image to slightly darken the values on the edges in photoshop – without changing anything else but you could increase the value elsewhere if you wanted (and I might), but it’s all up to you. Thanks for posting the original.

 

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Jim Fitzgerald.