Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Happy Pig C&C needed!!!!!


I have been working on this little chappie for the past 2 nights ..... Acrylic on board 12" X 12"
Fire away!

7 comments:

  1. Now this is one gorgeous piggy. He is very contented to be cooling down in that lovely water.

    Anne this is a very good painting. I like everything about it, the pig looks so contented. He is a good shape, he is in proportion, I think.

    So here is my critique.
    This is a mid-value painting, did you realise that? You change your painting into greyscale on your computer and have a look. This is one of the things you need to work on, your values. It will increase the depth of your paintings 100% if you get those values right.
    Make yourself a greyscale chart, please. It only takes about an hour to do. Cut strips of watercolour paper, 2.5" x 1" long and punch a hole in each end. Join them at one end with a piece of string or a metal clip. (can't think of the name for that clip) You need 10 strips. #1 being white and #10 being black. You can use tube black if you wish, but mixing burnt sienna and ultra blue will give you a really luscious black. Lighten each value strip with a little white, adding a little more for each strip. In watercolour you just start with the black strip, and add a little more water each time to lighten the value.

    Use the values chart for every painting you do. You check on your reference photo which value it is you need, using your strips, and placing the hole you punched over the area you are looking at. You mix your colour to that value. This is a valuable tool, and one a lot of professional artists use.
    Look at your photo in your computer editing program, using the eyedropper tool to pick out the colours, and use your values strips to check the value on that. It works a treat.

    Now, darken that reflection in the water off the pigs back end, and darken the dark areas in the water in front of him. His nose doesn't read quite right to me, now I look at it again, but that is not to say it isn't right. Maybe working on the values and shadows will make it read a little more natural. Where is the light coming from, it looks like he is top lit to me? You have the reference photo, you use that as your tool, and you don't need to show it to us, as we the viewer wouldn't see it in your home, or a gallery where your painting would be hanging. The painting needs to read correctly in it's own right.

    These are my thoughts in general I hope they are of help to you.

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  2. What a cute pig and he looks like he's enjoying his swim! lol

    Your palette works really well, Anne!
    I think the bridge of his nose needs to extend a little higher where it meets the top part of his nostril.

    Because he's in semi profile, his right eye wouldn't be as open as you have it and the inside corner of the eye would be obscure by the bridge of his nose.

    The values are mid tone, so add some darks to him and darker shadows on the water;)

    You have created a good painting Anne...well done!!!

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  3. I meant to say, I LOVE the heart on his head!!!!!

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  4. Thanks a lot girls ...just what I needed ...JJ ...you are always spotting things that no-one else sees such as the heart!

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  5. So is it a heart? Ree swears it is a triangle..;-)

    Nite from me it is past the bewitching hour..

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  6. It was not meant to be a heart or a triangle ....just a mark on the pig ..... you girls read far too much into stuff you know! LOL ....just sayin' .....

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  7. Well we are artists you know, we see things mere mortals don't!!!

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