07-16-2014, 04:13 AM
Cigar man! You always have such fun characters.
Much better arrangement of the values in this latest environment, the contrast of that background works much better compositionally, and it has a good focus on that misty area under the rock bridge. The effects of the light look a bit inconsistent though; the scree and the slope both have warm light, but the boulders don't. The forest in the midground looks a bit flat as well. It might help to use the forest to separate out your areas of dark and midtone so they read as a distinctly different thing to the grass, and as for the shape, just check photo reference, other painters, etc. - trees all have unique shapes, and a little implication of something more irregular and organic should help the read without the need to detail them.
On a related note, if you are interested seeing some different ways of handling this sort of thing, here are a ton of old painters' works (particularly a lot of landscapes/plein airs) in this tumblr: http://paintingbox.tumblr.com/archive They are mostly low res but the composition and colours come over fine.
Overall the big shapes and forms are working out though, it is pretty clear what the slopes are doing, and the sense of distance has improved. The shapes are getting more interesting too, keep pushing it!
Much better arrangement of the values in this latest environment, the contrast of that background works much better compositionally, and it has a good focus on that misty area under the rock bridge. The effects of the light look a bit inconsistent though; the scree and the slope both have warm light, but the boulders don't. The forest in the midground looks a bit flat as well. It might help to use the forest to separate out your areas of dark and midtone so they read as a distinctly different thing to the grass, and as for the shape, just check photo reference, other painters, etc. - trees all have unique shapes, and a little implication of something more irregular and organic should help the read without the need to detail them.
On a related note, if you are interested seeing some different ways of handling this sort of thing, here are a ton of old painters' works (particularly a lot of landscapes/plein airs) in this tumblr: http://paintingbox.tumblr.com/archive They are mostly low res but the composition and colours come over fine.
Overall the big shapes and forms are working out though, it is pretty clear what the slopes are doing, and the sense of distance has improved. The shapes are getting more interesting too, keep pushing it!