Some goddesses are puzzled by this...like me...I'm procrastinating, badly. I realize it, and I'm trying to stop. I've had a place in my neck that's been out pretty badly for the past 3 months, and it makes it pretty easy to have an excuse to procrastinate. I have many charters from Kingdom and Summits that need to be painted. Luckily, my mom-in-law isn't as much of a procrastinator as I am. :)
I used to think I could maybe develop some kind of artistic capability. Not at expert level mind you, just enough so I didn't embarrass myself or my family in a public venue.
I'm not so sure about that any more. I've spent the last 10 or 11 months very religiously studying medieval manuscripts, illumination and calligraphy and still know that I've only just touched the surface, but I thought I'd got some of the basics of painting down. I've been practicing and reading books, cuz I never took an art class until that one drawing class with my hubby about 10 years ago.
I recently was told that my stuff was too dark, and that I didn't have the skills to do the designs in a clean and medieval manner. I was a bit disheartened. The feedback is nice. I like to know what I'm doing wrong. I just don't think now that I can do anything right. I really would like to be told how to correct individual things, not blanket statements. But I guess that any feedback that's not 'gee how pretty' in a volunteer organization is getting you somewhere. Maybe?
I just have a hard time having any confidence in this, since it's not something I've done before, but I so enjoy painting. I guess I'm hoping that if they hate them bad enough they'll tell me not to paint so that I can stop wasting my time? :?
Here are the charters that were particularly dark, too dark for kids anyway :)
Have to remember to use something besides Prussian Blue and Black for a base color in the picture elements, huh?
I think the charter from this bunch that I was proudest of was this one on the right....I REALLY wasn't sure what that building was I was painting, or how it should be shaded. I was impressed that it actually came out looking like a building! :)
The other one I outdid myself on in my opinion, is the one at the head of this post...my sister was the scribe of the Summits and gave me two of these to paint in a Trompe l'oeil effect...needless to say, I had NO clue what that was until it was explained to me. :) The green as a background worked out fairly well, better than the gold I tried on the first one I did!
So, now I have talked myself into doing some more painting...maybe.
from a puzzled goddess
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5 comments:
Well, if you'd like a little more constructive feedback ...
:D
Maybe what they were trying to say is that your values are too close together. What's a value? Pretend (or actually do this) that you put a red film over the image. Can you tell, in a clean and clear fashion, what the different elements in the work are?
One of the reasons you're (justifiably) proud of the building is that all the elements are clear. The base artwork didn't allow you to abut dark colors together. They were separated by whitespace.
A way to look at this is by employing your knowledge of heraldry and then backing off a half (or whole) step. Yes, the image at the top is beautiful, but it has a few issues. The values are too near each other. In particular, the brown/bronze, green and purple are too near each other in value, although the bronze *almost* passes. If it were me, I would ahave the border green be the color it is, and go with black around the figures, or go much lighter with the non-border green and go darker with the figures. But I digress. Avoid color on color and metal and metal, right? You try to evade this heraldic rule and it's causing you some grief.
So, the blue gets by because it's bright/light enough compared to the green. That's because it's close enough to the white/pale grey of silver. Purple very clearly doesn't make it even though it's much warmer than the green. And the bronze doesn't quite make it because it's closer to the color brown than the metal. Starting to make sense?
A cheater way to do the 'film' thing is, since you have the image up on the computer screen, just highlight it. Don't look at the overall image if you want to get a really good idea of whether colors are working side-by-side. Sit a little back and try to make out the edges of the image. The lion, as a dark mass in the blue, still looks like a lion-like shape but the detailed edge around the mane isn't clearly obvious. It blends in against the blue.
I hope that helps!
Rereading, I think I wasn't clear about the value thingy. Another way to look at it is what would the image look like if it was translated into a black and white photograph? Take one of your images and translate it to black and white. Is it crystal clear, or does it look blended/subtle?
I don't believe that your work has to follow heraldic emblazoning rules (or whatever they're called.) But if you use them as a gentle guide, then you may find that some of the feedback you get will be more positive. And, btw, using actual gilding (even the fake stuff looks great) and silver leafing (whatever that's called) will make some of the areas where you couldn't avoid tonal nearness suddenly pop. If you plan ahead you can employ it in relatively tiny areas, get that separation in, and the work will really glow. Unfortunately metallic paints just don't pop like the leaf, so they often have to be treated just like the colors--metallic gold is a brown, silver is grey, etc.
Thanks Kami! I have done some original scroll work with gilding, but for charters the gold just comes too dear. But I'm practicing with Sumi Ink since it will actually take a burnish, unlike many of the other imitation "golds."
Hey, I'm impressed.
thanks for the props Goddess! My sagging self-esteem is sorely lacking. :) I did learn a bit from my Kami's explanation of color value and converting things to black and white. Interesting technique, I'm going to try it on some actual period MS examples and see what it looks like there. :)
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