I’m more interested in the potential of these than in their execution so far. What has compositional possibilities? What draws your eye the most?
I ask because I have three weeks to pull three masterpieces out of my ass. So far mostly what I’ve been pulling out is what asses produce best. :mad:
Numbers 1, 2 and 5 are my favorites. I think they’re fine as-is, what more do you need to do with them?
Number 3 doesn’t work for me compositionally, and 4 has value/space/why are the boats running downhill problems, IMHO.
(weird how I’m always first to reply on these threads, I swear I’m not stalking you 
)
You are aware that I have no artistic sensibilities or training, right?
There’s a lot I like - your colours are generally nice and understated (no craft-show sunsets, as Eureka says). The skies are really nice and your watercolour technique and blending looks good.
However, there is a persistent problem with perspective, IMHO. Look at #4 in particular - the spit of land in the left foreground looks sort of like it is rising upwards rather than stretching into the distance as I assume it is meant to be. There are other places where this is noticable too - the end of the dock in #1 and the bench, fence, and house in #3 (which all look like they are in the same plane to me).
Having said that, I went to art school and my watercolour technique still blows (I’m better with acrylic), and I still have trouble with perspective sometimes. Just my two cents.
Have you posted the 5th picture before?
Thanks for the input so far.
#1 is now my safety. If I hang nothing else, I’ll hang that one, but I’d like to do it again if I have time. It got a lot of compliments on the beach as I was nearing completion. But I think I could use the space better.
#2 has some ideas, but I need to develop it a bit and not make it so generic. I also need to make it about twice as big. (It’s about 14x6.) But I almost sold it on the spot, so it’s a favorite. I really need to capture the feeling of being there, as it’s an awesome place. I think I captured maybe 23% of the awesome.
#3 is problematic. I finished that one just a couple of hours ago. I burned about 5 weeks on it, and it still has problems. When I took the reference photo, I thought the scene was pure magic. But I’ve been scared of painting it, and I think it shows. It’s going to the bottom of the list. (BTW, I’ve spent more time planning this than any other painting I’ve ever done. I have three pages of text describing it. If, after all that work, it’s still that bad, its primary purpose is as scrap.)
#4 is a sunset, yes, Eureka. The colors were what struck me most about it. Too bad I didn’t have a camera, but I don’t think that would have caught the magic of the moment. And the perspective problems are a BITCH. But this one has potential, I think. But it needs serious work.
#5, as it is here, is not an option. It sold about 2 hours after I finished it. If I can adjust the colors and refine it, I might be able to make something of it. Compositionally, though, it does need work. All of these scenes came from various summer vacations. #5 was, hands down, my most awesome day. I need to express that better.
Lessons learned – a painting done in 4 hours is self-expression. A painting done in 5 weeks self-destruction.
This doesn’t excuse one from proper planning, of course. 
Thanks for the input!
The fifth and the second.
I’m no art critic, so I won’t waste your time with my opinion.
But… those look like CA. Do you live in CA? Maybe near Santa Cruz? No need to answer if you don’t want people to know.
This might work as a decent reference photo for #5. Add in some stacked rocks, some nude bathers, and some much hotter weather, and that was pretty much my day.
John, you’re about as off on the coast as you can get. 
All of the scenes are from MA. Numbers 1 and 4 are from Rockport, the others are from Martha’s Vineyard.
Well, that would’ve been my second guess. 
Actually, the CA coast is quite similar to the coast of Maine. That’s why many of those scary New England movies (eg, “Kujo”) are filmed in NorCal (in or near Mendocino, often). Easier to get to from Hollywood.
Completely non-artistic, but bored person checking in -
Perspective looks totally off to me. At first glance, looks like the shack is supposed to be sitting on top of the pillars, but not quite. Then the pier or whatever looks 2D. Reflection in the water looks too red. And, to this non-seafaring person, the colored whatevers on the side of the shack look like Christmas lights.
I actually like this the best. Simple enough that I’d hang it in my house just to have a painting around. But, in 1, 2 and 3, the layout of the picture looks sort of off. Like everything is slightly skewed or tilted towards the left. I feel like if I had any of these in my house I’d go nuts trying to make the picture straight on the wall.
Doesn’t do much for me but your leaves look pretty good. See above about the tilt.
I don’t get this one at all. The perspective of the thingy on the left is very awkward, while the hills on the right look good. Why are all those empty boats out there with no sails? Is it bedtime for sailors? The boats look like toy boats in perspective with the thing on the left. The pink of the water throws me off too (but like I said, I don’t spend any time around the water).
I like this one. I think there’s a lot going on in the dune/background part, but the rocks in the foreground throw off the perspective. The huge rocks make the dune look small. Might be better if you just moved those off to the side.
John Mace, that’s too funny. You know what makes it funnier? Jaws took place in the fictional town of Amity. It was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard. Stuck On Me took place on Martha’s Vineyard, but was filmed in Rockport. And no, I wasn’t fooled by it.
Yeah, I was at an odd angle to the building. I may need to redo it from a slightly different angle just to get it to look not so odd. There are a million pictures of it, and a good dozen in my apartment without even turning on my computer, so reference materials are available to me.
The Christmas lights are bouys. I guess I need to work on their bouyness. Oddly enough, from that pier, at night, you can see a fully lit Christmas tree in someone’s window. Even in summer.
I guess this is a love it or hate it painting. I just like the airiness of it. And the many masts (I counted over a hundred of them) look like a weird aquatic forest.
The tilts you’re seeing are actually just an artifact of my poor photography.
Yeah, the leaves came out good, but there are too many other problems. This one is going bye bye.
Perspective is definitely the enemy of this one. And the boats need to be bigger.
If I had painted in moorings attached to the boats, would that have told you a better story? The pink, BTW, is exactly how it looked. That what attracted me to the scene.
Yeah, I need to do something with the forground, I just don’t know what. And I’m a little bugged that you called it a dune. Those are huge cliffs, and are absolutely awe-inspiring in real life.
Maybe if I put some people in there, it would solve both of those problems. But it would create a new one – people tend to draw attention to themselves, and I definitely want the focus to be on the cliffs.
I’m going to go work on this one a little bit.
Thanks for the input!
Well, don’t forget, I am from Cleveland. I know not from dunes. Or cliffs. But I suppose it’d look more cliff-y if it wasn’t offset by a large rock. Large boulder in foreground + huge cliff in background = rock next to dune
If it were me I’d put a tiny stick figure guy in there to show height lol
I like 4 and 5 the most. The others seem a bit compositionally overly stable/ predictable/ cliche, but I have a more supersensitively tuned sense of cliche than some. #4 has some perspective trouble but nothing that can’t be fixed (widen the base where it hits the picture plane–you’re being a chicken perspectivally. Or use a repoussoir-- a bit of tree or something in the ultra-foreground–to define that dune back further than it now appears) or toss it off to the side to avoid that point) and the composition’s a lot more interesting than the others.
Ilike 1, 4 & 5 best. #1 looks a little out of drawing but it’s catchy.
Oh, I totally am! (And notice that the forground mass actually resembles a chicken.) The jetty, from my perspective, widened greatly at its base. My eyes told me this, but my left brain told me that a jetty is really just a straight line. I need to shut down that part of my brain and just trust my eyes.
This brings up an interesting point. Is it moral (or ethical) to put things in that have no business being there? A tree repoussoir in #4 would be severely out of place. Trees don’t grow out of asphalt and granite.
Sure, as an artist, I can create my own reality. But this is not some unknown barn in some unknown field in some unknown Nebraska. These scenes are of pretty famous places. And a large number of people who will be seeing these paintings will be familiar with these places, and instantly know that something is deeply wrong with my depictions. A tree repoussoir in #4 is just wrong. It would be like putting Snowmass Mountain behind the Washington Monument.
A bit of googling turned up this possible reference photo.
For painting #1, this might be a better perspective.
Three words: buy a ruler. Four of the five paintings have horizon problems, with water running off the left side of the canvas and buildings sinking into a bog. Unless you’re driving for some sort of abstract effect, horizons are level (in nature, at least), and distant water horizons are flat, not wavy. I agree with the perspective comments. Try working with shading to create an illusion of depth; in life, objects that are closer are generally darker, detail fades with distance, as does color. Your boats are sitting ON the water, not IN the water. Sorry if this sounds a bit harsh, and it’s just my opinion. Art should please the creator.
Painting #1Too symmetrical.
Painting #2Too symmetrical.
Painting #3Too symmetrical.
Painting #4 Like it quite a bit!
Painting #5Like this a lot, too…but the hilly lookin’ thing in the middle is too nondescript. More detail or more subtle shading/shadowing. I love the colors in 4 and 5.
#2 and #4 are my favorites, but maybe I just like boats. I like #5, too.
