Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tweaking Paintings

On Friday I met with my critique group and got some great suggestions to improve the paintings I showed. As usual, I made some changes and ignored other suggestions, but all in all I think the paintings are improved. I will post images of before and after because I always enjoy seeing the adjustments other artist make in their work.

See if you can spot the changes.

By the way, this latest work I just sent off to the Watercolor Society of Oregon hoping to get in to the upcoming competition.

Caribbean Cornrows II

Before

 
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After

 
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Changes: I wiped clean the area of hair behind the hands and made it a white background and more tendrils of hair. Also, the cornrows have more black in them. Above the upper curved colored arch, I darkened some of the white spotted area. I put some detail into the hands of the braider and made the feet of both women more readable. Finally, I made the green shirt black. Better?

Carabbean Cornrows

Before

 
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After

 
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Changes: I gave up some white by putting a light wash on the enpty chair. The point of the top of the empty chair got rounded. The plain purples in the spaces around the chair arms were adjusted to fit into the painting better.

Questions Rising

Before

 
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After

 
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Changes: Only 2--The lower right hand set of rings gained a ring, and the edge of the lower left rocks got broken up with a more interesting shape.

And now fore the abstracts. I experimented with both Clear Sailing and Lily Pads by adding some light washes in the white areas. I recieved the same feedback from almost everyone that the left white made the paintings seem unfinished.

Clear Sailing

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After

 
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Lily Pads

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After

 
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How many of the changes could you spot before reading the answers? Keep your fingers crossed for me regarding the image I've sent off to the WSO Juror.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey-



I love the bracelet on the young girl's arm and the wash over the white dotted space.



Linda

Anonymous said...

Hello Aunt Sue!

Abbey helped me spot the changes you made to Caribbean Cornrows II, and I think we found them all! We both really like it. The colors, as usual, are just beautiful!

I love the patterns you add to your paintings. I also love that your works reflect joy and love of life.

I really enjoyed the photos you recently shared of your two trips with different generations.

Grandma looks like she's fairing well still. She's so lucky to have wonderful daughters to care for her.

I'm so glad you blog, I love seeing the things you share!

Love, Janny

Anonymous said...

PERFECT! If you don't win an award I'll eat my bagel untoasted. (Course it always depends on who is jurying) Sam