(08-13-2014, 06:49 PM)Tristan Berndt Wrote: Alright so the thing about still life paintings is that you can take your time with them. Now given that, if you have issues with control, do a line drawing. Looking at your study, I can't really see any well defined forms or edges, this means you're going to spend a bunch of time messing around, trying to get the correct values and colors in but in the end, your underlying drawing is messed up.

There is no rule that you have to make a line drawing first but in your case it is something I'd highly recommend. Then to define everything with its base color so you can try and make it less muddy before trying to render it. Muddy values and colors are what I'd say is the main issue with this. Nothing is really solid and everything changes in value at random. So starting with a line drawing, defining forms and mapping out form shadows and cast shadows so you have an easier time when it comes to painting.

You might also want to consider starting off with something a bit easier. Cast studies are great to start from because of their unified base value, and their limited range of depth. The downside is that they're a bit expensive. Try and find simple things and start with them, try and make everything look solid and well defined as early as you can so the rendering process can be focused on rendering, not fixing mistakes.

Anyway. I hope some of that helps out. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

(08-18-2014, 11:14 AM)meat Wrote: "And I didn't do a sketch beforehand, I just threw "paint" onto the digital canvas." If you're making a study instead of a painting or illustration that's not as big a problem. However it's better to get into the habit of making preliminary sketches.

Plants changing while you paint is an occupational hazard and you just deal with it. At least it's not a prancing horse you're studying for some knights painting, right? You can also take a photo of it at the beginning to reference later on when some leaves fall off or something.

I suggest for you, next time if you're calling this one done, to block out the main mass of this plant with 1 dull base hue first, painting it as if it's a shadow on a wall. On top of that you can start to add layers of more saturated and brighter shapes of hues. Use contrast of hue and value to create edges that separate one leaf from another. Slowly separating out layers of leaves that way is less confusing.

Here's a kind of paint over trying to demonstrate what I meant. I filled in the plant with a dark green, then added brighter and brighter green over it: