Comparing old work with new helps you see your progress in digital painting
This is the painting from two years ago
I found an older painting from January 2008 that I painted as part of a Pink Anemone Grouping. This one never made it to my online gallery (for some obvious reasons lol!)
January 2008 Pink Anemones
January 2008 Painting: Things I See Wrong ( oops! I mean, "things that need improvement!")
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Overall: The colours are too dark and not consistent throughout the painting, the leaves are badly drawn, the flower's center and stamens are blurry and formless, no shadows on them at all (what was I thinking?), no sense of depth, blending very blotchy
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Light: The shadows are not all the correct value (let alone colour), it is unclear where the light source is, the further back flowers do not change in colour, value or intensity at all.
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The Background: Colours are ..., Hmm, 'Nasty' is the first word that comes to mind! Not very harmonious and add nothing to the depth and perspective of the painting. The bud and the blurry flower are not beliveable.
December 2010 Pink Anemone
December 2010 Painting: (this is, as compared to January 2008 Pink Anemone)
(If I had critiqued 2008's painting before painting this one I would purposely have tried to improve some areas more, because there are still some of the same flaws! )
- Overall: The colours are consistent throughout, the stamens are more defined and there are shadows on the center! There is more sense of depth to this one than the other, but this area still needs work. I chickened out (not conciously though) on the leaves and any background flowers in this one. Probably because I vaguely remembered that anemone leaves were ugly and hard to draw from my last poor attempt! This painting was painted with watercolour and digital watercolours and John Derry's Digital Wet brushes exclusively. The other was done with watercolour and digital watercolours, blenders and pastels. The more recent one has a more authentic watercolour look to it.
- Edges: Some improvement in this area, but flower still looks pasted on a bit, probably because of background.
- Light: Still some problems in this area because I wanted a more distinct difference between light and shadow on the flower and haven't pulled it off. The stamens need light and shadow correction. They are all the same value.
- Background: Still not enough sense of depth in the background. Colours more consistent and harmonious, but ... the flower seems to be floating in midair and doesn't 'belong to' the setting it is in. The background has a suggestion of some of the other flowers, but it's not really clear that is what is going on with the pinker blobs (which I did with John Derry's brushes. Did not have them when I painted Jan 2008 Pink Anemones).
To link to the tutorial on painting the December 2010 Pink Anemone click here
Would love to hear your critique of these paintings! You can comment publically buy commenting below on this blog post, or privately by using the Contact form in the left sidebar!
Posted in Artistic Growth. Updated January 10th, 2011.
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