Forest Sunrays

[Enug]

Based on a real media oil tutorial by Kevin Hill.

90094

[Bobbi]

Well done. When I see paintings such as this one, I always wish there was a story to go with it. :)

[gxhpainter2]

lots to like in this especially the sunlight filtering through the dense forest.. :):)

[pat1940]

Love this June, the light coming through is perfect

[Marilyn Anne]

Looks like a book illustration and I would want to read it!

[D Akey]

Beautiful. You should be very pleased.

I don't know what the tutorial was, so it's hard to comment. But as it stands I will make a couple criticisms -- not because it's a bad job -- it's a really good job. It's choices I would have made differently (the instructor had given you a starting point and if this is sort of a Disney-esque background which in many cases calls for simplicity, it's the character of the format. My suggestions are more for a one off painting.):

1) The stream is too steely gray and milky opaque for my tastes. So I would have warmed it up a tad to make it feel like a stream more than a deep river. It has to be somewhat shallow, and as such some places where the bed would come to the surface, either with different size rocks and or dirt/mud, fallen logs, pussy willows (as possibilities only). But there could be more sense to the swirls and eddies that would show up in your highlights and the color you make the water in parts. What that means is that you have an opportunity to make it interesting with variations. The stream is one of the key factors in the painting, and since it draws so much attention I should think you would want it to deliver a more interesting visual that describes something more than "here's a stream". I would think it through and broaden my visual vocabulary and think in terms of dimensions and volume, not just the surface. That helps one construct an image.

2) I still have to think that your use of depth of field focus could be a little more considered. While it appears that you are using blurring to fill gaps and imply "more leaves" etc as a painting technique, there's the odd bit that hangs in the air out of focus that does not make sense visually. It looks fine behind large clusters of leaves. But when you have a blurry leaf shape hang into the middleground where the foreground and background are sharp, it's inconsistent. Not a huge problem, but it's something as the artist that you may want to own as a tool.

I love the overall painting. It's keyed nicely to the cools. I love the stuff in it. The rays of light coming in are really nice, and I can sense an intriguing story about to play out through it. As a viewer I could be walking through, or I could be an observer waiting for a dramatic scene to open up. I know you were copying, but I'm giving you my take on this as if it were entirely cooked up by you, and what the effect of this and that are, for me anyway.

We want to take you past being a copyist to the place you can make selections and enhance an image to make it sing. Technique is very important to master. But creation is there for technique to support.

Anyway, great success. Keep going, June!

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[Enug]

Thanks to everyone - I really appreciate that you took the time to look and comment.

Dear DA it scares me when I see such a long post - but reading thru I always have to agree with what you have said and hope that I can take it in and apply in the future. I do recall you drawing my attention to the blurring before. So still improvement needed there.

Rather than a full tutorial, it was more of a walk thru of a Bob Ross style painting. Have a look - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYc73vN1Lm4

[D Akey]

Well, do not fear. I'll be brief in future. . . maybe. :rolleyes:

1) At the risk of offending probably 90 percent of the people out there, I do not hold Bob Ross in high regard. His aim was to complete a painting in the short duration of his show using easily copy-able techniques that required little finesse or thought. As such he uses some pretty cheesy techniques. They may look fine on the television, but in real life it's the kick-em-out piecework techniques favored by sweat shops. Those are to painting what plywood is to wood. Sorta serviceable but you wouldn't ever want to try to pass it off as a wood for a beautiful counter top.

2) You learned a lot from doing this and as such it worked out really well for what it had to offer. The general idea that the Bob Rosses put out are not all wrong. But you will note that he paints the same thing over and over more or less, none of which requires anything but the vaguest formulas of maybe 30 or so kinds of marks. Get that stuff under your belt in a hurry and move on to things with some persona, the persona which I gather you have in great abundance.

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[eighty+]

Hi june Looks good but as Mac pointed out the stream which i took to be a path but as
they say yuh win some and like me yuh lose most :D:D buy thanks for the Link its more
my type of Tut trad not digital were they go so fast I get lost :(:(:( Ow thanks that my
post's look alright on your Computer they do show ok I my IPad but on the Wacom I
have to move up or down as it only shows about a third of the PIC ok June CIAO IVAYA
CON DIOS SLAINTE ....and as POZDRAWSKI would say keep them coming Gal :D:D:D

[Enug]

OK, didn't scare me that time Mr. DA.:p Because I haven't had art lessons, I find it a problem not knowing how to use colours to get the effect I'm after. Especially in this case water. How to make it appear to have movement and depth. Anyway, excuses aside, I think this looks better and perhaps I've learnt something.:confused:

Thanks to you also Mr. Ploos for your input. Thanks for visiting!

90112!

[D Akey]

Very nice. I think it's better in the stream, don't you? Good stuff!

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[Caesar]

Fantastic lighting!