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aJVL β Day
Published: 2012-06-06 08:21:28 +0000 UTC; Views: 26577; Favourites: 1630; Downloads: 3766
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Description
~the light lingers, the day in motion.Day. That is all...
Welp, the colour's still off and everything looks desaturated, but a slight improvement I think. Critique's welcome.
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Comments: 124
Gotta love those Canterlot landscapes. <3 Always the best thing to paint.
Great Fluttershy.
I like your palette so far, but yes, saturation needs to be bumped up.
If the light is "golden hour" (sun set/rise), then you need to emphasize your darks (especially in the foreground) and lights more.
You got it right here: [link]
Composition is alright. My eye is drawn to the hill that's dead-center; it's distracting, and disrupts the flow of your piece.
You could lighten it so that it blends in with the mountains/hills behind it and/or shorten the tree in the foreground so you can see the landscape behind it (as well as more of the sky). Or move it.
The tree in the foreground melts into the background... especially where the opacity is off. Needs hard edges. You can still have those soft, fluffy leaves, but define the edge of the silhouette so that there is a clear difference between the tree and the landscape behind it.
There's an equal amount of detail between the foreground and the background, which makes the who image "busy".
Generally, the foreground should have the most detail (because its closer), and the background should have less.
Overall, you have a solid start and a good picture. It stands out, and I think it's the strongest piece in your gallery.
You have a good grasp on the conceptual and narrative elements.
It's just the technical stuff that's holding you back (light, color theory...etc.)
Sketching from life/observation is the best practice.
[link] Here's a painting by Edwin Church with similar setting/lighting. Look at how the light interacts with the landscape. Notice how dark the foreground is, and how light the background is? Also how the details are distributed between the foreground and the background? Study his painting and yours side by side.
Keep up the good work!
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This is gorgeous. The shading and texture (especially on Fluttershy's hair) is very well done.
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Link to F. E. Church's painting is dead. I guess it was this one: [link] ? (The largest I've found.)
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Hmmm... link still works for me. But yes, that is the same one.
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Oh my, it really means a lot coming from an esteemed artist such as yourself.
I've always admire your work and some of your paintings did serves as an inspiration to me.
*reserving fangasm*
Yea, I've a huge amount of improvement that needs to be made on the colour, value and lighting. You're absolutely right about studying about studying old master's work. After seeing that link you've sent me, I realized just how many errors there are in this image.
Thank you again for the critique! It really helps a lot. So thank you!
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Oh..umm. If I may ask, what would be your suggestion in selecting colour?
Mine's always look muddy and I have to resort to layer mode to bump up the colour. I know it's alright, but I would like to learn to try selecting the colour manually instead of using modes.
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Find a painting by an old master that has the colors you want in your painting, and color-pick from that. Paintings by old dead guys are perfectly fine to copy, and that includes color palettes. The reason you should do this, is because they spent A LOT of time studying color/light... and they're very good at it. You will learn a lot if you practice by copying them.
Muddy colors can be caused by weak values. Grayscale your image--If there's no balance between the darks, lights, and grays? Your colors will look terrible no matter what they are. [link]
Values are the core of color because value is light. Without light? There is no color.
As far as technical details go, you can avoid getting "muddy" colors if you don't adjust the opacity on your brush. Keep it no lower than 90%. Turn the airbrush option on, and only adjust flow... 20%-40% flow is a good range.
Opacity affects transparency...which messes with the values and light... which messes up everything else. You don't want to screw up your values, as they are the foundation for your colors.
Flow "layers" the color without affecting transparency (like real paint).
And as a general rule, use the largest brush you can for as long as you can, then slowly decrease it as you progress through the painting. This will prevent you from noodling in the details before the rest of the painting is developed.
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Ah, I see.
I've been only adjusting the opacity, without Other Dynamics turned on when blocking in the colour. I don't know whether which method to use, so I tend to change whenever its needed.
So, I think it's best I get started on studying old master painting. They're really useful when I browse through some online, though I don't know the name of the painter. ><
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just my thought on this critique:
Never have i expected to see a pony-painting artwork being compared to the grand masterpeices.
I'm glad i'm following your critiques, *CosmicUnicorn . How did you come across this artwork?
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=AeronJVL 's image? Just browsing.
Or if you mean Edwin Church's painting? School/studies. I probably have some of his work saved in my reference folder.
He paints landscapes with dramatic, idealistic, lighting. Lot's of sunsets and sunrises. Figured he'd be a good choice to help me explain my critique.
Whether or not there are ponies in your paintings, studying the old masters is always a good idea.
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wise words written so truthfully!
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I've been told that I tend to read more into a picture than what is really there, but even if you did not mean to, I think that you have created something very reflective in this picture.
Autumn can be unusually symbolic. Green fades and dies as the year ends. I can see a great deal of fading and dying in your picture. The falling leaves are very striking and meaningful in that you have given them roughly the same color as Fluttershy.
Fluttershy herself looks a little faded as well. Usually she is teaming with emotion; whether joy, fear, sadness, or peace, most of the images that have Fluttershy show her effusive and dynamic. In your picture she is a blank slate. She sees the world fading around her, but there does not seem to be any emotion in her face. If I had to assign an emotion to her, it would be acceptance.
Canterlot is as strong and stolid as ever. Perhaps her gaze is fixed on it as a center in her world. Maybe comfort is found in it as an eternal point that resists the change surrounding her.
I'm impressed with the detail you paid to the trees in the foreground. I love the soft and sharp contrasts in the leaves and branches. It helps pull my attention to the left side of the image and I almost need to pull myself away from Fluttershy at the bank to think about what she is looking at.
The color looks fine, but there is another flaw. Looking at the river wind up into the horizon, the perspective does not stay constant. It's very slight, but still distracting.
Otherwise, this is a fantastic, and, for me, emotional landscape.
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First off, let me say that I adore this! I think the washed-out colours enhanced the overall feel of the piece, and you shouldnβt over think them β theyβre fine!
I cannot get over the colours used in the clouds and sky! Theyβre wonderful, and completely break away from the other aspects, yet blend quite delicately at the horizon. I especially love the colours used for the sun, showing the bright, yet fleeting light as the sun nears the edge of the horizon β I also think the position of the sun, that is, reflecting onto the river and lake, as to create a lovely band of light in the shape of an inverted βVβ, where the river expands into the lake, is wonderful!
However, the only area that I think could be slightly improved is the brightness β after playing around with some of the levels for a little while, I found that slightly lowering the brightness, and increasing the contrast (particularly around the shadows of the tree (bush/plant), the banks of the river/lake, and the upper left hand-side of the sky), removes the βhazeβ over the piece. It also helps the branches, sky, and the overall atmosphere, appear more dynamic, and adds a little more depth, too. It also brings the colours themselves into more focus, and separates from similar shades, and just generally improves the total feel.
What I love is the fact that you got the direction of the leaves in the wind perfect! Towards the bottom, the leaves blow towards the right first, before arcing around, and heading βthroughβ the river (direction wise), whereas, at the top of the tree, they flow at an angle, straight towards the vocal point at the head of the river β perfect perspective (whether it was purposeful or not, itβs wonderful!)
But, and this may just be me here, Fluttershyβs mane appears to be slightly off. Nothing overly major, itβs still in the correct general direction, but I think it would be blowing slightly more βforwardβ, so to speak, and less so to the right.
Overall, I think itβs gorgeous! From the shape of the mountain ranges, to the colours of Canterlot βnot to mention the level of intricate details on the terrain! Fantastic job! Donβt forget to keep up the great work!
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By Celestia you're right! I tried what you had suggested and boy, does that look better now.
I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but I followed what you had said.
Also, thanks! Honestly, I'm afraid of overdoing the contrast because my laptop has a very low LCD contrast ratio, so I thought I would compensate for it by reducing the overall contrast so that other desktop monitor can see it better. I'm getting a desktop soon, so I hope this trouble wouldn't surface again.
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Huzzah! No worries, I've always fiddled around with the contrast with whatever I do, and it generally looks better, but I thought that may have just been me. Glad that it actually works, and that I know what I'm talking about!
Mm, I had the same problem as well; I could never tell whether or not I'd overdone it, simply because of my decade-old hardware! Usually it should look fine, regardless, it just means that some computers will get a slightly better looking image than others (at least, that's how I justify it)!
Again, I'm glad that I could help!
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Haha... yea. I'm hoping to get a monitor with a decent contrast ratio and IPS panel. Helps with colour accuracy and all.
Anyway, thanks again for the tip! I'll be sure to remember applying those in my future works.
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One of the reasons I really your work and yourself as an artist, is because you are always experimenting and exploring the different approaches and possibilities available to you. This is amazing, the desaturation, the texture. It's very different to most other works in your library, and yet (of course) is still phenomenal.
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Salvatore Denif gave you:
1 Like
1 Watch
You got a Like!
You got a Watch!
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Omigoshomigoshomigosh! I was looking for a wallpaper, and you delivered! Great job!
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This amazing painting is my favourite wallpaper for my pc (it doesnt work in my phone xD) I just LOVE that painting!
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me+this picture=mind blown. too amazing. <3
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Oh! I found it! This is the painting I was talking about! It's so beautiful, with its gorgeous gold and amber tones, I love it soooooo much! And I love that Fluttershy looks a bit melancholy, but not like she's gonna burst out crying or anything. This painting is just so beautiful. And Fluttershy is done in such a lovely, realistic way. It's not cartoony at all. It's just gorgeous.
I was wondering if I might use this image (not the background, though it too is utterly breathtaking, but the image of Fluttershy herself) in a banner for my Fluttershy fanfic. Can I? I promise I won't make any money off of it in any way, shape or form, and I'll totally credit you. But this picture is just so beautiful! And she's so beautiful! And I can just see how it'll fit into the banner idea that I have. May I use it?
Sincerely,
LA Knight
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Oh! I found it! This is the painting I was talking about! It's so beautiful, with its gorgeous gold and amber tones, I love it soooooo much! And I love that Fluttershy looks a bit melancholy, but not like she's gonna burst out crying or anything. This painting is just so beautiful. And Fluttershy is done in such a lovely, realistic way. It's not cartoony at all. It's just gorgeous.
I was wondering if I might use this image (not the background, though it too is utterly breathtaking, but the image of Fluttershy herself) in a banner for my Fluttershy fanfic. Can I? I promise I won't make any money off of it in any way, shape or form, and I'll totally credit you. But this picture is just so beautiful! And she's so beautiful! And I can just see how it'll fit into the banner idea that I have. May I use it?
Sincerely,
LA Knight
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Why I didn't see that before. Epic Art.
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wow....if I had half your talent. Beautiful!
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Just practice is all I can say.
I mean, if you go back 9 months ago and tell me this work is mine, I would probably think you're crazy.
Go through speedpaint video and analyse how artists use their brushes, use reference book and practice.
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I'm in the same position. If I look at my work a few months ago compared to now I've improved a lot. Thanks for your advice. I've got loads of reference books and magazines and I'm currently studying an art and animation diploma so hopefully i'll be able to produce something of this standard soon 
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This is breathtaking. I feel as if I'm being pulled into the picture. May I print this to give out to fellow bronies?
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to tell you the truth, i have not seen something so beautiful on DA.
this is simply outstanding.
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Awesome artwork, i wish i could draw like that.
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You sir or ma'am, are an inspiration! I can stare at this picture for hours and fantasize my own world away into this beautiful landscape of dreams! I will strive to learn from your creative design and do hope you continue to make such wondrous works of art!
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