The trouble with pumpkin vines

[Runya Jade]

I'm looking for feedback from those who can help me out on the pumpkin vines in an art nouveau style. I really want to finish this piece and I can't quite figure out how to finish the vines off. Thanks in advance.

[REGNIRUTH]

I like what you got here, very interesting piece and the border design suits it well. Although, instead of white it should be something a little more mellow, it's just a bit bright and kind of disturbs the inside colors.

you have a lot of space filled in within the border except that area within the upper middle section. the sky could use a few artifacts of some sort, perhaps a flock of birds or a moon centered (faded, wouldn't let it be too bright.) behind some clouds.

the woman looks nice and the drapery along the ground is nicely detailed, but it doesn't feel like it matches the rest of the dress on the woman.

The vines could just be left as it is, i wouldn't do much else to it since that's already quite a lot of detail and it can only go so far.

good work!

[reversenorm]

I feel like you have conflicting styles of rendering. On the one hand you've painted some very beautiful and round pumpkins but the vines are very very flat. Likewise you have some very soft clouds but the trees in the background are flat. Then the whole thing is tied up with an art nouveau inspired border.

So you have tow directions to tighten this piece up. Either accept that the piece is just nouveau inspired, or really push the nouveau style a lot more.

If you're going the more realistic route (the one where you're just using nouveau themes not nouveau exactly) I would suggest adding more depth to the pumpkin vines. Here and there have a few forms stick up out of the tanble of vines. This image has a little more light than yours but you can see how some of the vines stick up.

Also with this style the sky could use some more definition (sharper clouds or add birds).

If you're going the strictly nouveau style, you need to outline your forms (pumpkin and woman) and soften your shadows (and possibly lighten the whole piece up). Also for the vines in this case don't worry about perspective, or depth just make shapes the express vine-ness.


Also for further reference this nouveau piece has a dark background ang good close ups of vine shapes.

Sorry it's so big.

Anyway hope this helps.

[Runya Jade]

I like what you got here, very interesting piece and the border design suits it well. Although, instead of white it should be something a little more mellow, it's just a bit bright and kind of disturbs the inside colors.

you have a lot of space filled in within the border except that area within the upper middle section. the sky could use a few artifacts of some sort, perhaps a flock of birds or a moon centered (faded, wouldn't let it be too bright.) behind some clouds.

the woman looks nice and the drapery along the ground is nicely detailed, but it doesn't feel like it matches the rest of the dress on the woman.

The vines could just be left as it is, i wouldn't do much else to it since that's already quite a lot of detail and it can only go so far.

good work!

Thank you!

I'm hoping when I'm done I can have this printed on toned paper which would really tone down the white areas.

I'v been playing with the sky and have tried a few birds but they didn't work well and I have been debating about trying a moon but haven't tested it yet. And the woman is actually a ghost, I was trying to make her somewhat transparent until you get to her. I know it's a bit hard to see in it's current size.

[Runya Jade]

I feel like you have conflicting styles of rendering. On the one hand you've painted some very beautiful and round pumpkins but the vines are very very flat. Likewise you have some very soft clouds but the trees in the background are flat. Then the whole thing is tied up with an art nouveau inspired border.

So you have tow directions to tighten this piece up. Either accept that the piece is just nouveau inspired, or really push the nouveau style a lot more.

If you're going the more realistic route (the one where you're just using nouveau themes not nouveau exactly) I would suggest adding more depth to the pumpkin vines. Here and there have a few forms stick up out of the tanble of vines. This image has a little more light than yours but you can see how some of the vines stick up.

Also with this style the sky could use some more definition (sharper clouds or add birds).

If you're going the strictly nouveau style, you need to outline your forms (pumpkin and woman) and soften your shadows (and possibly lighten the whole piece up). Also for the vines in this case don't worry about perspective, or depth just make shapes the express vine-ness.


Also for further reference this nouveau piece has a dark background ang good close ups of vine shapes.

Sorry it's so big.

Anyway hope this helps.

Thank you for your post.

The Vines are what I'm having the most trouble with and havn't quite found just the right technique to get them in the way I would like to see it.
I know where I'm going with this piece isn't going to make it 100% Mucha art nouveau but I would like to get it to feel that it's in the direction.

Thanks for the photos. I have a couple of pumpkin patch photos I'v been working with.

I'm still not quite sure how to finish the vines though.

[Runya Jade]

So this is what I finally ended up with.

[pctoolml]

just off of my own preference, i would put some atmosphere in the background to make the lady in the foreground stand out some more. also i would spend more time rendering her flesh tone with more colors in to it, make consider two conflicting light sources, (the moon and a lantern, etc)

but mainly the back ground competes with the foreground way too much. blur it up or add a layer of 10%opacity lighter tone to fog it up, or darker tone to darken it up. either way, when it comes to backgrounds, less detail is always a good idea.