a couple of studies from life

Ramesh Vyaghrapuri · 05-20-2010, 01:42 AM

A couple of oil studies done from life (open studios). Both are done mostly with home made paints -- I have painted on and off with oils before but never really liked them much, until I started to experiment grinding my own paints & additives which make it a lot less frustrating (and thanks to the forum for a lot of useful information).

Still, I dont get it yet, which is why these studies are mostly using limited color, focusing on brush marks/handling mostly now. Color-mixing is too distracting for now.

Any feedback at all is welcome. If you can bother to spend some time with any criticism, that is doubly welcome.

Also, I hope this is the right place to post this (this forum is a labyrinth to navigate and nearly as dead as the Cretan one though hopefully not as deadly :-).

Claudemir Bonfim · 05-21-2010, 02:45 PM

You did a good job.

I like the drawing in the first painting and the colors of the second one.

Richard Bingham · 05-21-2010, 06:46 PM

Mighty fine! And a treat to look at, Ramesh.

Re/color, it's a grey world out there! You can't go wrong with limited color, and concentrating on warm/cool relationships. Brilliant color is like cayenne pepper . . . the right amount in the right place is a wonderful tasteful seasoning, most enjoyable, but too much on everything is painful!

The painting of the girl is delightful for the warm/cool contrasts. Consider painting across forms (the arms) to develop a better feeling of solidity.

Yes, this forum is in the doldrums . . . too bad, those who have opted out are missing a treat, seeing your sketches.

Ramesh Vyaghrapuri · 05-24-2010, 01:54 AM

Thank you, Richard & Claudemir, for your comments.

I will look out for modeling the forms a little better (the arms on that second painting are definitely sloppy -- I tend to lose concentration around the 2 hour mark though it is slowly getting better with practice).

Claudemir Bonfim · 05-24-2010, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramesh Vyaghrapuri

I will look out for modeling the forms a little better (the arms on that second painting are definitely sloppy -- I tend to lose concentration around the 2 hour mark though it is slowly getting better with practice).

Try using a mirror every 30 minutes to check for accuracy. Da Vinci was the one who first wrote about this technique.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard

Consider painting across forms (the arms) to develop a better feeling of solidity.

You're right again!

Ramesh Vyaghrapuri · 05-26-2010, 09:40 PM

Here are a couple more, the incomplete one is after 3 hours into a two session open studio. The other one is 2.5 hours. Both were painted directly without an underdrawing or painting. I was having too much trouble with layering of brushstrokes where they blend and muddy up unexpectedly, so decided to try to paint cleanly and directly. It was a bit tiring to evaluate each brush stroke (ended up sacrificing edge quality and variety)..

I might have to try to use some kind of a wax medium to help with the layering a bit (or maybe use egg on the top layer). This might allow me more control.. or maybe it is just that I need to get more experience to figure out how to load brushes so that wet layering is more well behaved.