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Hi folks!

This is a follow up to the previous blog/newsletter entitled "Steps in the Painting Process of 'Morning Bargain'". You may remember that I offered a description of the following steps... 

Well, things don’t always turn out the way we might wish.  After showing the painting to both friends and instructors (not mutually exclusive!), I was made aware of several errors.  It has taken a while to fix these mistakes, but of course it’s not the only thing on which I’ve been working. 

Here they are:

1.  Perspective issues with walls and arched doorway, somewhat hidden by foreground elements.  Making a small 3-D model of the walls and doorway, and holding it up to the sun in just the right way helped me see how to correct this. 

2. The foreground figures were too small given the perspective and their size relationships to the camel, and I also needed to simplify their light/shadow shapes.

3. Shadows beneath camel needed to be adjusted, and the edges and contrast on the guinea fowl had to be softened, as they were drawing the viewer’s eye too strongly away from the main focal point.

4. Finally, before the critique, I added the younger man on top of the load, to strengthen the weight of the composition.  There is now a rough, invisible circle connecting the heads of young man, main figures, and the corner of the white sign board.  It echoes the curves in the camel and the arched doorway.

Humbling yes, but still after all these years I find the critiques from other artist’s invaluable.  To those of you who are artist’s reading this, I realize it is not always terribly enjoyable.  But it’s a very good thing to get used to, and almost always results in better paintings.  And, you don’t always have to take every suggestion to heart.  It is okay to like something just the way you already have it. 

Thanks for reading!   ~ Mark