[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

here goes the ref

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Its funny. In oder to have a look at full pictures on the forum, I have to use the CTRL++ and CTRL+- keybinds to change the size of  the page (on a computer). This way, the pictures appear much narrower and I can see the reference and your painting altogether. Some main difference really pop out when looking at them from afar, which are to me :

Fruits :

Big scale : the pear first. Yours is less contrasted and the colour is less vibrant. By this I mean the red bightest tone is not pure enough or not bright enough. This is also true for the red part on the peach. Also, the bottom shadow area on the pear is too big. It appears that the painter made very clear differences in zones on this object, and your treatment of it make the zoning less clear. There are some clear lines defining the orange from red and light yellow from red that are interesting in this object and that you didn’t render I think. Also, I think you were really focused on these peaches, they appear way bigger on your painting than on the original one.

On a more precise scale, I’d say it appears to me that the size of your painting looks considerably more little than the size the master actually painted it. This allowed him to put much more details and subtlety on the grapes and prunes than you seem to have the space to put on your painting. The treatment of details on the original allows us to really feel the grain of the fruit and understand if its wet or dry surface. I think by looking at the grain of your canevas, you would not be able to achieve that kind of details with the size of it. That being said, paying more attention to the very little variations between the grains, the form and relations in the shapes of the lightnings and shadows would improve the rendering of your fruits. Still, I really feel like your copy is fairly accurate and close to the original !

For the second one, it appears to me as if your photo is not taken with the good lightning, for as if I compare your colours in the above and the colours in the second one, you look like you can fairly distinguish and have a sense of the colour. This painting looks like it has been realized in a much cooler light than the original. On second thought, I feel like you did not really treat the background as the painter did in the original : the lightest part of it is very close to the cup of coffee, and drags your attention to it. There is a clear sense to me that the main area of interest in the painting should be the cup of coffe, and the round shape behind; at least, it is your entrance into the picture. I think this is because the spoon is really dark in the middle of the brightest tones in the pictures. Contrasts draws attention. Then there is a reference between the shadow of the spoon and the shadow of the knife, that make the eye move in different directions and jump in a pleasing way from one object to another. It looks to me as if you noticed the changes in colours, but not in tone. The second point I would make is the treatment of the red zones again, the jelly and the wine. They appear a bit “flat”, I mean the difference between the darkest and the brightest red you used is less striking than the original painting. Look at the bottom right part of the glass of wine, this red is really close to an orange and is actually talking alot with the shape and colour of the bread below. Maybe is there a need for finding a brighter pigment ? Or I don’t really know as I am not a painter myself.

Sorry for only pointing out the mistakes I see, as not being a painter myself I would not be able to actually fix them. I feel like there is alot of the mistake you make that are more related to the technique than the actual eye you have for the things you look. And on a technical level I could not advise you much.

Still, this is really cool work, I see alot of dedication and it shows ! 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Impressions du Bord du Monde.

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Any thoughts on the figures ?

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Hi there ! I think most people come here for figure drawing critiques, so I add also some of my works in live model sessions and one I did on the video series provided by NMA. Most of this work is done on wood plates using conté sticks, for I then gouge the plates in order to print them such as shown.

Image 1 : Plates after 10 minutes drawing in a live model session
Image 2 : Prints obtenaied after splitting the colours between 2 plates and printing separately then together (black over orange)
Image 3 : Blue, sanguine and white on black paper, live model (25 mins approximately)
Image 4 : “Live session” on the computer using one of NMA provided sessions, 5 minute pose but I couldnt help stopping the timer so this is more of a 45 minutes drawing using black, white and sanguine on a wood block.

 

Any advices on the subjects :

– In a live session, I always feel in struggle with timing, as I really need to use techniques that allow me to play with masses easily and I struggle with line drawing which allows much faster rendering of what you see… I am most at ease with conté sticks, charcoal and pure chinese ink.

– How do I improve the “back-and-forth” process between realistic rendering and stylization of the figure. I like the way one can understand the complex shapes they face and represent them in a simple design…

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

I am very pleased that you link the pieces together, as they are a part of a serie I want to call “Chronicles of the catastrophe”, which are talking about the way I feel about the epoch we live in. They talk about the absence of our species, and I feel something warm in the fact that there is beauty and life without us. I feel these times as hard, times of truth, and as such, full of poetry. I will have a look to what you say, I think it is clear on the 2nd plate, and I know why. It was at first only a figure drawing, then I was bored of it and changed the human head for a ram head, then decided to redraw the legs, and as I had erased the legs, I decided to go for something entirely diferent. It is often like this when I work on my linocuts for so long, I change them bit by bit and in the end I’m always surprise of what comes out !

I will try to change that “two parts” aspects on the third one, I had seen this already and I want the eye to move freely from top to bottom.

Thank you for the review ! 🙂

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Hi there ! Nice work ! I think you can get frustrated because you mainly focus on the obvious features of the face (nose, eyes, mouth, ears), which you can place and draw fairly well in my opinion, but you forget to think of the 3dimensional shape of the head. We see correcly the eyes and they look well placed, but we can’t see the shadows implicated by the orbits, nor the shadows of the nose. Working on a more sculptural approach, as in the photograph below. I think drawing is a constant back-and-forth process between what I know and what I see. Here, I think you start to fairly well “get” the basic features of the face, but you can improve by training on 3 dimensional objects such as this. Then you will be able to include these subtle changes in lighting, because you will be trained in seeing them in your photo reference or subject.

Hope this helps ! Sanguine is one of my favorite tools too 🙂

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Thank’s alot for your time and advices ! I must admit the colours I use here are constrained by the colours of my posca pens. The actual choice of colour happens later in the printing process, and I have to say I was not quite sure about that teal ! I think the colours I use in preparatory drawing define quite alot what I tend to draw, but still there is a lot to happen later when I actually carve and print them. I was thinking a kind of wallnut brown or crimson dark red at first, maybe a gradient from red to yellow, or a blue, for its spiritual and mystical implication. This way of working implies that my colour will mainly define the midtone then white for lights and black for darks, so its basically a one tone approach. This follows alot the way the first wood engravers were using colour, using one colour for the lines and one for the tone.But I’m trying to get bolder on the last one, with two colours being of the same tone … We will see if I cant make them fit together ! (Same here, the colours used here are not specially meant to be the ones on the print, I might use purple versus orange yellow …). I often struggle with which colours fit with which one.

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Can’t wait !

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

i there ! Nice piece of work, I really like your use of colour and the purples in the shadow. One of my main concerns with your painting would be the flatness of the face : it looks like if it misses some more shadow. You have put a very strong cast shadow on the side of the nose, but we dont see any plane change in the eye socket. This makes it appear flat a bit I feel. I also feel like if the nose is not exactly on the good spot to feel “3D” : the shadow-light line is going straight in direction of the middle of the mouth, and separates in two equal parts the nose: it appears like if the character was facing us, and yet the rest of the face is like 3/4.

Still, the colours and shapes are very beautiful and I like the fluidity of the shapes.

[Impressions du Bord du Monde]

Hi there ! I really like the way you build the basic shapes first, helps bringing solidity to the pose. First off, one of the easy things I would change might be the background color : I feel there is not enough contrast in the piece and you could simply improve the understanding of this gesture by contrasting the color of the figure with the color of the background. I’d say darken it probably.  The second thing I would work on is the contrasts within each part of the figure. The main tones being defined, you could emphasize more the planes that are hit most by the light, and darken the ones that are away from it… This will allow you to either add some detail or enhance the understanding of the figure you draw.

I’d start working on that ! Keep up the good work !

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