01-01-2014, 08:32 AM
Hey man, well after looking at this again after some time off, I really had to say that you've been dancing around the composition issues. Sorry I didn't suggest alternatives strongly enough and I didn't have time to paintover properly. Plugging up that corner actually won't solve the main issue.
The main issue is the canvas is divided into halves both ways. The horizon bisects the canvas, the valley line vertically bisect the horizontal halfway point. You have a composition divided into equal quarters with more weight going into the bottom left. If I was fixing this digitally I would actually crop the image at the top and bottom to get more balance.
Also without actually changing the major shapes in the painting you will be able to do almost nothing to fix the composition.
So with that in mind I did a paintover thinking about how to address the composition. I offset the the centred horizon by adding a strong foreground in the lower third. I shifted the valley centre to the right so it wasn't in the middle of the painting. I simplified shapes everywhere to get a sense of flow to the comp, you can see this in the background hills. I also used the clouds to help this flow rather than just have them horizontally across the image. I used counterchange (dark against light, light against dark) to highlight particular areas and show depth.
Another thing to think about that I noticed, is your brushstrokes. You should be trying to express the shapes you want with the least number of strokes and with the biggest stroke size possible. In your painting we can see a lot of small fiddly work going on all over, especially noticeable in the distant hills. Those hills could potentially just be a couple of well placed swipes with a palette knife for example. You want to nail the shape, colour and value with one stroke somit retains a sense of vitality and action to it. So it is better to scrape off and repaint a stroke if it isn't right rather than fiddling shapes with lots of little ones, because you are dulling down the vitality of the brushwork. Be bold! Another thing is edges. You have accentuated all the sharp edges of the valley hills which is why they draw so much focus and don't recede as much as they could. Edges are incredibly important for focus so you definitely need to start learnung and planning how to use them. Stapleton kearns posts on edges are great.
I know this isn't exactly "finishing" feedback, but I really think you should see it even if you don't do it this late in the game. You must be a bit sick of looking at it by now.
I left the ref I used in there as well.
The main issue is the canvas is divided into halves both ways. The horizon bisects the canvas, the valley line vertically bisect the horizontal halfway point. You have a composition divided into equal quarters with more weight going into the bottom left. If I was fixing this digitally I would actually crop the image at the top and bottom to get more balance.
Also without actually changing the major shapes in the painting you will be able to do almost nothing to fix the composition.
So with that in mind I did a paintover thinking about how to address the composition. I offset the the centred horizon by adding a strong foreground in the lower third. I shifted the valley centre to the right so it wasn't in the middle of the painting. I simplified shapes everywhere to get a sense of flow to the comp, you can see this in the background hills. I also used the clouds to help this flow rather than just have them horizontally across the image. I used counterchange (dark against light, light against dark) to highlight particular areas and show depth.
Another thing to think about that I noticed, is your brushstrokes. You should be trying to express the shapes you want with the least number of strokes and with the biggest stroke size possible. In your painting we can see a lot of small fiddly work going on all over, especially noticeable in the distant hills. Those hills could potentially just be a couple of well placed swipes with a palette knife for example. You want to nail the shape, colour and value with one stroke somit retains a sense of vitality and action to it. So it is better to scrape off and repaint a stroke if it isn't right rather than fiddling shapes with lots of little ones, because you are dulling down the vitality of the brushwork. Be bold! Another thing is edges. You have accentuated all the sharp edges of the valley hills which is why they draw so much focus and don't recede as much as they could. Edges are incredibly important for focus so you definitely need to start learnung and planning how to use them. Stapleton kearns posts on edges are great.
I know this isn't exactly "finishing" feedback, but I really think you should see it even if you don't do it this late in the game. You must be a bit sick of looking at it by now.
I left the ref I used in there as well.