Open Critique

[PetrStranik]

Hi, I’m a former student of yours, I have some pictures that I would like to get critique on if I would be so lucky ..

The first piece: I believe that I lost the concept somewhere in the process and for some reason something isn’t quite right: I call it honour and while doing preliminary I felt that it would be a great concept and picture. I would like to know opinion on composition as well as on execution – technical ability.

Second painting is a male figurative study. Do you feel that I should soften more edges?

 

The third one is a female in this instance:

 

Would be more than grateful to hear where to improve!

Regards from Czech republic, Petr Straník

[haggiben]

Hi!

I’ll jump right in to it:
First of all I love the muscle definition in all of your pieces, I think that is really one thing that stands out immediately. the way you used color and light to bring them into focus is something that I hope to be able to do someday.

I think that your compositions are done well and I love the vibrant colors. I actually enjoy just staring at the images, but the 1st image has a few problems I think:

this hand looks disconnected from

the rest of the body, and I would have left it in shadow

because the light is pulling to much attention to it,

while it seems to me that it is not the main focus of the entire composition.

 

this top part is cut off in an unfortunate place

as it is almost exactly on the neck

and I don’t think it is a good idea to crop between any two limbs,

also I’m not sure we need the empty space behind the back,

and perhaps cropping it would give this guy a sort of mirroring relationship with the other guy, giving that he is cropped that way as well.

[hannah.pluott]

First, I love the definition and rendering of the muscles. Your forms are beautiful!

I think the thing that really stands out to me is the lighting in the first portrait is very confusing. There’s obviously a harsh light source from the upper right on the figure on the left. However, the light on the figure on the right is coming from the left. If the shadows were softer, the wash lighting would make more sense. But as it is, it not only robs the painting of a focal point, but it also is confusing.

[PetrStranik]

Thanks you all!

I thing you both nailed it. I haven’t thought about the lighting and you are right, hannah, it is confusing not to say that the raising sun is the third source! I tried to crop (sorry is low res) it and maybe it helped a little and maybe I try to glaze down the hand as you haggiben suggested. Thank you both!

[Ramona Hornung]

I feel that generally you could work with softer edges on the core shadows to gain more volume in the forms.  The girl’s legs for example, but also the entire front of the male figure. In the male figure’s face there is little difference between the cast and the turning shadows, the turning shadow on the chin for example, has almost as sharp an edge as the cast shadow from the nose.  And even where the form turns abruptly and the light is being reflected from a harder surface, as on the spine of the nose, there is still room for a bit of softens, blurriness … you could, even only pass with a soft brush the length of that edge as the paint is still wet to blur it a bit. Also I feel there is a bit to be gained from playing with the edges on the contour line of the male figure, the light side, say, if you were to selectively sharpen a bit the forearm on the light side, and make it contrast with the softer contour on the torso, which is further in space, that would gain you some pictorial space. What I mean is, there is yet variety  in edges and contours which you might explore.  But on the whole, it’s beautiful, your work, and I wish you well. Thank you for sharing.

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