I decided to crop in a little tighter and make the overall composition a little stronger. If you compare with the first version you can see what I moved around. Also, having worked out a lot of issues this was a lot easier to do, and it was easier to keep it fluid.
I looked at a few of my favorite sources and noticed that a lot of painters leave the background loose and unfinished looking to increase the sense of depth and focus. Though I tried decreasing it's saturation and tried pushing it towards bluer tones, it didn't really work out that way. Something in my is fighting this concept.
I think I could do a dozen more of these, but I think part of the problem I'm having is that this is from a Google photo, and not from a scene I've seen firsthand and photographed myself. I really should get outside. It's just that it's the coldest summer in San Francisco in at least 20 years. Excuses, excuses.
4 comments:
Very nice! Your changes improved your painting and gave it some depth. I hope I can get to a point where I can know what needs to be done to a painting when it just doesn't look right. This has been a good learning experience for me, too.
Nice job. You made some nice improvements particularly with the tree on the right going off the top. If you don't mind me saying, I actually like the main building better in the first version :)
Your earlier Page House Blues painting is quite nice too.
I'm very interested to see how you are handling these scenes. I have a really tough time with buildings of any kind, because they don't look right to me unless they're pretty tight, which isn't consistent with the looseness I want to develop in my painting. I can't seem to strike a nice medium.
You make a good point about getting outside to paint. My excuse is that it's the hottest summer in NC for 20 years, and darned if I'll go out there in 101 degrees!
Very nice painting and with the tighter cropping, the center of interest is the focal point. When having trouble with trying to get colors to recede or come forward, check out the cool and warm color theory. Warm brings forward; cool recedes. I have some examples on my blog if you'd want to peruse.
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