Comments on: A little experiment.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:30:59 +0000

Well, I finally got out of the lab repeating experiments that rarely work over and over again to read your post heh heh. I tried making a xiangqi board doing ink over watercolor and I still had problems, even with plain old watercolor. The ink in the resevoir (or however you spell that) would just sort of blob out and ruin everything, it was really irritating. I eventually got something, but only with big straight lines, I couldn’t do curves or anything with detail. So I can’t figure out how you got it to work at all with gouche

By: bethany

bethany — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:11:35 +0000

ok- well, i don’t have any artsy lingo to throw at you, but i read A LOT of illustrated books, and if i saw a book with pictures in the style of the first one, i would snatch it up! Then I would find any other books you illustrated on amazon and snatch them up too! I like them both, but i LOVE the first one. nice work- you’re far too hard on yourself! :)

By: MrsDragon

MrsDragon — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:11:06 +0000

I agree with Lauren, she said a lot of what I was coming down here to say. : ) The only thing that I would add is that the backgrounds are also different. The blocks of lighter brown in the first one add some visual interest aside from the subjects. The lack of those spaces in the bottom one makes the background boring, which means your eyes tend to leave the painting instead of lingering to see the detail in the colors in the subjects.

I think Lauren hit it on the head when she said “I just like the first one better. However, you have to ask yourself if you want an animated style. Then you have the question of who will want to hang an animated-looking still life of shells on their wall. I think the style can be nice, but the subject matter is not right.”

Also, fwiw, the more animated style of those shells reminds me of your birds and such. I would just think that the background is too dark.

Have you considering doing ink AND guache AND watercolor? For instance, with this painting, do the background in water color, the subjects in guache, and the outlines in ink? I’ve never worked much with watercolor or guache myself so this could be a straight shot to disappointment, but I figured I would throw it out there.

By: paula gibbs

paula gibbs — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:01:00 +0000

Lauren,

You’re spot-on about the colors…the second version got rather muddy-looking both in color and texture.

Regarding the first one, the anime comparison is interesting. No, I didn’t mean to make a cartoon! There have been a couple of times now when I began a painting with the goal of making flat panels of color and adding all the details in ink. But every time, I get too carried away and end up with a shell that’s half shaded in gouache and half shaded in ink, a sort of bastard child of the two that’s neither here nor there.

I think the problem might be with the gouache, in this scenario–gouache can be so much darker than watercolor, and I think the dark tones make my eye want the ink to blend in seamlessly instead of coming in lines.

Back to the painting board…

By: lauren

lauren — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:30:42 +0000

Wow! Gouache! I have not used the medium much, but I am amazed at what many forms the medium can take on. It is so versatile, but difficult to control.

You have fantastic draftsmanship. Your drawings are right on.

The painting with ink over gouache reminds me of Anime. I like the browns in the background. Overall the values and colors are working well, and the ink lines give me some hints of texture.

The second one, after looking at the first one, looks like it is not finished. I do not like the browns in the background as much. I think the biggest problem may be the lack of edge variety (ie, soft edges, lost edges, hard edges). Edges give the viewer a path to follow, but no path means nowhere to rest the eye. No center of interest. This composition may be better as a photograph which showcased all the textures of the shells, but the painting is almost abstract in a bad way. The first painting has more color variety than the second.

I just like the first one better. However, you have to ask yourself if you want an animated style. Then you have the question of who will want to hang an animated-looking still life of shells on their wall. I think the style can be nice, but the subject matter is not right.

Paula, I am sure some of your other readers will disagree with my critique. I would love to hear more thoughts.