06-21-2013, 11:23 PM
Composition, perspective, values, depth, overlap, shape design, scale, pallette harmony, life. These things you need to work into every enviro to get it to look less amateurish.
The comp is very plain...it's a big U with the primary focal point being a somewhat brighter area in a sky of plain gray. Pick a couple of focal points and concentrate detail there only, leave it looser in other places. There is very little interesting to view and move the eye around in terms of silhouette and shape. Set and use a perspective grid and play with more interesting viewpoints than just flat side on. Are you drawing actual grids? Your sense of lighting and depth has definitely improved so now you can start thinking about controling your values even more. Use overlapping elements to help sense of depth and use elements that cross between depth levels so that it doesn't all feel like you are only layering separate 2D cutouts. Same is done with atmospheric perspective, fog, clouds etc use these behind things to pop their silhouettes out when you need to. I think for you, you really need to focus on composition and push the shapes you use to construct your landscape. Think basic....I'm only going to use triangular forms...I'm only going to use circular forms...or a combination...repeat these in various sizes and scales throught the image. Go from big shapes to small shapes, when going from outside to the focal areas of your painting. Use Reference! Photo and other artist reference to colour pick from to help you get a starting palette if you have issues at first, and stuff for ideas on shape language and design. Be observant in the world around you...make notes when you see something cool.
Start applying all of these to your work. Do more studies. You probably shouldn't just do random sketches all the time and expect to be get better quickly because it doesn't work that way when you are first learning...or at least it will take a lot longer to get better using this approach than if you actively practice the specifics. Perspective, value sketches, lighting studies, colour studies, composition studies etc. You only learn the fundamentals by doing and aping and then actively trying to apply them. Eventually you will get better at conjuring all these up together into a decent concoction. I'm sorry I know it wasn't a direct crit on this piece...but this kind of stuff is what you need to know and do right now.
The comp is very plain...it's a big U with the primary focal point being a somewhat brighter area in a sky of plain gray. Pick a couple of focal points and concentrate detail there only, leave it looser in other places. There is very little interesting to view and move the eye around in terms of silhouette and shape. Set and use a perspective grid and play with more interesting viewpoints than just flat side on. Are you drawing actual grids? Your sense of lighting and depth has definitely improved so now you can start thinking about controling your values even more. Use overlapping elements to help sense of depth and use elements that cross between depth levels so that it doesn't all feel like you are only layering separate 2D cutouts. Same is done with atmospheric perspective, fog, clouds etc use these behind things to pop their silhouettes out when you need to. I think for you, you really need to focus on composition and push the shapes you use to construct your landscape. Think basic....I'm only going to use triangular forms...I'm only going to use circular forms...or a combination...repeat these in various sizes and scales throught the image. Go from big shapes to small shapes, when going from outside to the focal areas of your painting. Use Reference! Photo and other artist reference to colour pick from to help you get a starting palette if you have issues at first, and stuff for ideas on shape language and design. Be observant in the world around you...make notes when you see something cool.
Start applying all of these to your work. Do more studies. You probably shouldn't just do random sketches all the time and expect to be get better quickly because it doesn't work that way when you are first learning...or at least it will take a lot longer to get better using this approach than if you actively practice the specifics. Perspective, value sketches, lighting studies, colour studies, composition studies etc. You only learn the fundamentals by doing and aping and then actively trying to apply them. Eventually you will get better at conjuring all these up together into a decent concoction. I'm sorry I know it wasn't a direct crit on this piece...but this kind of stuff is what you need to know and do right now.