Another for school.
C&C please.
EDIT: No comments??
UPDATE
Please C&C. I really want to make this image good.
you are too gentle. it’s very fuzzy.
you need stronger strokes.
.b
yea, from the thumbnail it looks kinda fuzzy, and it looks like the shading on the coat is very flat. Perhaps the shading should be more sharp and dynamic on the entire piece as well?
These are just my impressions from the thumb though…good start!
Concur with basse. You could usually see impressionists’ brush strokes. The nose looks like it is pointing straight out of the page, while the head is turned to the left. I think it has something to do with the size of the nostrils (same) and the highlight going straight down the center of the bridge. Also the whites of the eye are too white, the eyes pop out like he is staring at something in surprise. The highlights, on the other hand, aren’t light enough.
Impressionism is about light, shadow and colour. Tonal contrast is the foundation of impressionist art. If you take your image into Photoshop or Gimp and convert it to a bitmap - just black and white, no grey - you’ll see that some areas are working but others are lost. As far as colour goes, try to keep warms and cools working for you. If you have a cool highlight, use warm shadows or vice versa.
You have drawn some areas, like the collar, using lined edges filled in with colour. There are usually no edge lines in impressionism and there are no edge lines in real life - just areas of contrasting tones and colours. When you find yourself wanting to paint an edge, assess the subject again and see where you’re missing lights and darks.
It also looks like you’ve done a bit of odd computer editing - if not, what is the big circular pattern on his right shoulder?
As the others have said - be brave with your brushstrokes. Rather than mixing a grey colour for the jacket, let strokes of blues, greens and reds sit together and mix optically on the surface. Close-up you should be able to see these strokes but from four steps back they should begin to meld together.
If you can find a book by Harley Brown (called Eternal Truths or something) take a look. I think you’ll like it. You may even find some of his stuff on Google.
First I just wanted to thank every one of you for the constructive criticisms that you have all provided. It is clear that all of you have a better idea of impressionism than I do currently and I want to use this forum as a reference for refining this image.
From the past couple of days, school has been keeping me real busy so I havent had time to work on it. But I’ll post an update (keeping in mind everything said here) as soon as I can. Thank you all.
You should also take a look at wetcanvas.com for a full-on art forum experience. They’re generally a friendly bunch, just like blenderartists.