From the Artist: Please accept this tree as my second lesson in the Jumpstart Your Creativity Course. [The first was this
monochrome portrait.]
From the Painting Guide: I cropped your photograph as I felt the tree was floating somewhat on the large sheet of paper.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: When cropping a large sheet of paper with a small painting on it that uses the white of the paper as its background, like this does, you've several choices for a composition. You could place the tree centrally with white space on either side, you could place it to the left or right with white space to the one side, or you could crop it very tightly with minimal white around it.
I opted for having the tree on the left with space on the right. I like this for a composition as it gives the tree space to "look into". Though I would also probably increase the extent of the grass most of the way across.
Working with Pastel: The rich, saturated colors in the tree are gorgeous, and I think you've used the pastel beautifully to build up subtle shifts in colors and to create your tones. What you still need to do, however, is to take an eraser and (carefully!) eliminate the smudged pastel around the tree. Because the background is plain, this is very notable to my eye and distracts from the subject. If the background had been 'busy', it would matter less. A putty eraser is good for this as you can shape it into a narrow point.
From the Painting Guide: I cropped your photograph as I felt the tree was floating somewhat on the large sheet of paper.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: When cropping a large sheet of paper with a small painting on it that uses the white of the paper as its background, like this does, you've several choices for a composition. You could place the tree centrally with white space on either side, you could place it to the left or right with white space to the one side, or you could crop it very tightly with minimal white around it.
I opted for having the tree on the left with space on the right. I like this for a composition as it gives the tree space to "look into". Though I would also probably increase the extent of the grass most of the way across.
Working with Pastel: The rich, saturated colors in the tree are gorgeous, and I think you've used the pastel beautifully to build up subtle shifts in colors and to create your tones. What you still need to do, however, is to take an eraser and (carefully!) eliminate the smudged pastel around the tree. Because the background is plain, this is very notable to my eye and distracts from the subject. If the background had been 'busy', it would matter less. A putty eraser is good for this as you can shape it into a narrow point.
