From the Artist: A friend at the local painting club recently taught me to sketch figures and I have practiced by drawing her. The decision to paint from one of these sketches was rather impulsive as I wanted to try the limited palette for this painting.
I discovered that when using limited palette my painting time gets reduced almost by half and also that I can paint straight from my sketches showing four or five values, without looking at the reference photos for colors. Please tell me how I could have used the colors more effectively for this composition. I'll be trying some more paintings with the same colors.
From the Painting Guide: I think you've used the colors very effectively indeed in this painting. There's a range of colors and tones, which together create a harmony across the whole painting, and you've created some beautiful strong darks, built up some 'complex' colors by glazing or layering paint. I think it's a great painting overall which has used the colors from the project to great effect.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Perspective: Compare the angle of the left-hand wall (and the easel, which is aligned with it) to the direction of the floorboards. To my eye there's something awry there: the floorboards seem to head into the left-hand corner of the room rather than running parallel to the wall as I'd expect. It's easily fixed by painting out the lines that 'read' as floorboards (or by repainting the lines in perspective with the wall).
Shadows: The light coming in from the window is creating shadow, and I like the colors used for this, the blues and greens rather than just "dark". However, the shadow needs to go right up to the shoes, not start a little way from them; it should emerge from under each shoe's sole.
Looking at the tones of the side wall and the wall at the back, I wonder whether the light shining in through the window would hit the side wall and thus make most of it lighter in tone than the back wall (which would be lighter only very close to the window)? Also, given that the figure has her back to the window and has long hair, I'd expect to see more shadow on her face, for the skin tones to be more like that under her hand, especially at her neck and probably the side of the face by the hairline.
I discovered that when using limited palette my painting time gets reduced almost by half and also that I can paint straight from my sketches showing four or five values, without looking at the reference photos for colors. Please tell me how I could have used the colors more effectively for this composition. I'll be trying some more paintings with the same colors.
From the Painting Guide: I think you've used the colors very effectively indeed in this painting. There's a range of colors and tones, which together create a harmony across the whole painting, and you've created some beautiful strong darks, built up some 'complex' colors by glazing or layering paint. I think it's a great painting overall which has used the colors from the project to great effect.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Perspective: Compare the angle of the left-hand wall (and the easel, which is aligned with it) to the direction of the floorboards. To my eye there's something awry there: the floorboards seem to head into the left-hand corner of the room rather than running parallel to the wall as I'd expect. It's easily fixed by painting out the lines that 'read' as floorboards (or by repainting the lines in perspective with the wall).
Shadows: The light coming in from the window is creating shadow, and I like the colors used for this, the blues and greens rather than just "dark". However, the shadow needs to go right up to the shoes, not start a little way from them; it should emerge from under each shoe's sole.
Looking at the tones of the side wall and the wall at the back, I wonder whether the light shining in through the window would hit the side wall and thus make most of it lighter in tone than the back wall (which would be lighter only very close to the window)? Also, given that the figure has her back to the window and has long hair, I'd expect to see more shadow on her face, for the skin tones to be more like that under her hand, especially at her neck and probably the side of the face by the hairline.