Finally done, thank you everyone for your help

[justa]

HI all

I'm about to try this as a landscape painting, based on the rocks near where I live, a celtic-ish fishing shrine. It feels fairly balanced to my eye, with my fish carving at the focal point when I divide it in thirds. It's for a small galllery that exhibits local work, I want to get away from the typical "Nova Scotia fishing village" cliche a tad while still fitting in. I've included a photo of the last one I did as well.

Is there anything that really stands out as a problem in the composition?

Thanks!

D'Arcy

[TinyBird]

Well personally my eye gets constantly dragged away from the rock to the blank, whiter area in the right corner, especially since the whole rock formation creates a line down there, but then there's nothing to actually look at. Overall I wonder exactly how high we are in the image, since there's nothing in the ocean (like rocks or the line where the stone "beach" and water connect). As in from the horizon I feel like we're on a high cliff, but then looking at the rocks or image as a whole it doesn't really feel like that, if you get what I mean.

[justa]

Hi and thank you!

Yes, I see what you mean about the right hand side there, will have to think a bit about that. Just flipping the picture would help I think but there needs to be some secondary point of interest there. And yes, we are up high, most of the coast here tends to be cliffs, the viewer is walking up the path but not all the way to the top yet. Perhaps I need to indicate a path... I'll go think about this a bit more; and thanks again - I really appreciate it.

D'Arcy

[justa]

A quick idea before bed - better but more thought needed I think.

D.

[justa]

2 more ideas for composition. Basically the viewer is walking up the headland and comes upon this old carved rock at the crest of the cliff looking out over the ocean. I want it simple. Do any of these 4 ideas work better than any other - or perhaps more accurately do any fail particularly spectacularly? Any opinion is most valued.

Thank you

D'Arcy

[Artfix]

I like the one in post #4 because it has the most storytelling elements in it. What is throwing me off, and maybe Tinybird too, is that the horizon sea is SO plain. It needs some kind of subtle coast or rocky edging, or something. Because in these roughs, it looks like the real painting is going to be floating on a stylized absence of a background...if you know what I mean? \=

Put some clouds, and wave texture, however your style dictates, and perhaps some faint coastline in the background, so the background doesn't look like a blank gradient.

[karmazon]

I like the compositions with paths leading to it. But Artfix is right, the background is too plain and also, too bright for my liking. It steals attention away from the rock.

[justa]

Hi Guys, thank you!

I am partial to #4 myself so I think I will commit to that one. You are quite right about the background, it is literally just a pair of photoshop gradients to shop me where the sky meets the horizon. I was thinking a few cirrus clouds to break up the blue and some waves to bring some life into the water, and I'll adjust the values a bit. Off to prepare my watercolor paper now!

Cheers

D'Arcy

[justa]

Just another inprogress post, got my watercolor paper glued to my board and started to lay in some paint. Slow going but that's pretty normal for me. Thanks for stopping by, C+C always welcome!

D'Arcy

[justa]

Hello all

I'm now at the stage of putting some carvings on my stone. Here are a bunch of quick ideas, mostly looking for a pleasing visual design. I'd value people's input as to whether any of them stand out. Also, carvings on the path or no carvings?

Thank you all

D'Arcy

[arenhaus]

I think that the concept in post #4 worked the best - at least was the most interesting one.

Whatever symbols you go with, remember they have to follow the uneven surface of the stone. They'll have an uneven perspective look on them. Break the boulder down into smaller planes to give you something to work with.

[Pavel Sokov]

I like 7 and 11. I would do the path carvings just because if it doesn't workout it won't be hard to paint over them.

Please include the clay pot and the fishnet on sticks as well, or else it would be boring.

[justa]

You know, it's really interesting how miscommunication can send you down an unintended path; When Artfix mentioned he liked post#4, I thought he meant image#4 (i.e. the 4th image I posted) so that is the one I went with. Looking back he was right, and I didn't even notice until Arenhaus repeated the "post" #4 and I realized my mistake.

so Arenhaus, thank you for your thoughts, I will have to think about planes so my carving goes on believably.
Pavel: Yayyy! you commented on someone else's work! (I was just reading your thread a few minutes ago). I think you are right, I need to put the fishing stuff in there but it's a different composition than post4 so I'll have to figure out how to make it work.

Thanks again

D'Arcy

[LaCan]

Nice concept. Why not produce the whole series of images with different arrangements of stones? You can safely include all of the things you sketched here. Some images can be more minimalistic, other can include nets, path carvings etc. It all works well as a part of the concept. All of your carving designs look cool. You could use them on different stones throughout the series. It would also be nice to vary weather or time of the day on some of the paintings.

For this particular painting I'd go with minimalistic composition. Only the stone without path carvings and other props. Looks more mystical that way.

[arenhaus]

Nice concept. Why not produce the whole series of images with different arrangements of stones? You can safely include all of the things you sketched here. Some images can be more minimalistic, other can include nets, path carvings etc. It all works well as a part of the concept. All of your carving designs look cool. You could use them on different stones throughout the series. It would also be nice to wary weather or time of the day on some of the paintings.

For this particular painting I'd go with minimalistic composition. Only the stone without path carvings and other props. Looks more mystical that way.

That's a great idea, actually. Just one painting of a stone is nothing special, but a series could be more interesting.

[justa]

Why not produce the whole series of images with different arrangements of stones?

Why is it that good ideas always seem to require so much WORK??? You guys are killing me!
In all seriousness, it is a cool idea, I've already done a similar one (the painting in the 1st post) and it would probably make my life easier not to have to learn how to render a brand new thing every time I paint something. I paint so slowly that I'd drive myself bonkers if I did too many, but I've got a number of ideas with standing stones in my sketchpad that I want to work on. A bunch with rusted metal in there as well.

Thanks again, off to paint again!

D'Arcy

[Velocity Kendall]

kind of reminds me of


LOL

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fos...il%3B600%3B282

[justa]

Hello all

I've finished the stone I think, now working on the vegetation then soon will be done !
Any thoughts most welcome ..

D'Arcy

(And Velocity - I wish I could paint like that - Roger Dean is just so creative, I've always loved his stuff!)

[LaCan]

Looking good there.

May I ask what medium are you using for painting this?

[justa]

Hi LaCan, thanks for the kind thoughts!

I use acrylics on Arches hot press watercolor paper. But since I hate hate hate wrinkled paper I dampen it, put acrylic medium on a piece of reinforced masonite and weight it down on a sheet of glass until it dries. It means I can lay in washes with impunity and still end up with a pristine flat surface to paint on. The only glitch is if I do it wrong and get some acrylic medium on the front of the paper it repels water and I end up with a big white spot in my color wash (which of course I don't find out until I actually start to paint).

The trials and tribulations we go through...

D'Arcy

[LaCan]

I was asking this to further my super secret agenda of making you do the whole series

But seriously, since you were mentioning not being happy with slowness of the process, may I suggest experimenting with "faster" media in eventual future paintings?

I personally dislike techniques that are gradual and "one way". Such as watercolor or hard graphite. They force you to slowly build up your value or color and make it hard to go other way, to repair mistakes or change things. Kind of frustrating as you always need to concentrate hard on maintaining the control.

I prefer "two way" fast stuff, like charcoal or oils. You can build or tear compositions in minutes, go back and forth as much as you like. A lot more flowy process. So maybe consider doing a series in oils. Sure, you'll probably lose some of the delicate texture of washes, but you might gain some other qualities (besides speed obviously).

[justa]

I've thought of oils on and off over the years, however I paint in my living room and my wife and son both have asthma, so any solvents become a problem fast. I may try the watersoluble oils, not sure how similar they are in workability to regular oils and if it was worth the shift?

D'Arcy

[justa]

Here it is, photo not perfect (my iphone) but fairly close to how it looks. Thanks again for everyone's advice!

D'Arcy

[LaCan]

Great! I like it a lot.

Regarding solvents; mineral spirits are good alternative. They are almost odorless and don't vaporize as much as turpentine. Don't know if they'd affect people with asthma though. I think solvents were discussed here in detail before. Look it up.

Please do more. It's a concept worth exploring. 9 more and you're ready to hang them in a gallery.