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RiEile — -Jaani Kirik-
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#church #facade #stjohn #terracotta #watercolor
Published: 2017-09-07 10:36:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 1234; Favourites: 65; Downloads: 4
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Description
St. John's chruch in Tartu, Estonia. When I came there the first time some 18 years ago a birch was growing from the roof of the church, but now it is renovated.Watercolor on Hahnemuehle rough paper, approx. 20x29 cm.
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Comments: 23
What a precision, you painted every single brick!
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It was an accident: I was planning to make it more generalized.
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Hello! I'm Jessica from ProjectComment to critique your work and what a lovely piece it is.
What drew me in to view this was the detail of the brinks. Between the color differences, spacing, and stellar amount of individual bricks coupled with the fact it is painted with watercolors shows the dedication to this piece. I would love to see more info about the making of this painting. Between the subject and the technique, it just begs to be inquired about. The shadows from the intricate brick designs are just fantastic and give a very realistic feeling to the piece. One thing I think you may need to consider is that bricks at lot of the time jut a bit out from the mortar especially in old buildings due to the natural wear and tear, how they were constructed, and the materials that were used in the building. Some times you'll get a bit of shadow on the bricks in the wall while other times you'll get a much flatter surface. Even adding a few details within the bricks can boost this from a beautiful painting to something extraordinary.
At first I wasn't too sure about the composition. I do enjoy a good odd crop or angle, but with all of the symmetry I did expect something more uniformed. After studying the piece, the composition grew on me. I did look up the church to view it in its entirety but couldn't find a photo of the exact angle of this door. I don't know if it is an optical illusion due to the shadows and angles, but I swear that the rows of bricks above the arch between the blue-green bricks are slightly thicker on the left (our left) than the right side. I did an improvised measuring using my thumb because I was curious, but it was only a slight bit difference which could be my error.
The wood grain and cast iron bolts on the door are detailed to the point where the mind fills out any gaps in the fine characteristics of the materials. The way you've painted the door and colors used give it an aged appearance that just reinforces the building's character.
All in all, this a lovely piece and well worth the effort you've taken to paint it. Hope to see more of your work soon.
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Thank you for commenting!
In fact, the building is looks very fresh because of extended renovations, but I should have aged it a bit for the sake of 'authenticity'.
The thing with the door is that in the actual church it is one brick to the right compared to the roof. I have not noticed it in the beginning, but then I realized that it is all a bit asymmetric. I evened the door out, because I either should have done it symmetrically or even more askew. And as I was just drawing it from life rather than 'construct' it, I decided not to change the already funny window.
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Ah, that's interesting how the name John, which is of Hebrew origin, translates into Jaani in Estonian.
In Finnish I think there are several forms for it, like Johannes & Jouni.
And nice depiction of the church's facade, looks almost like a photo!
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Oh yes, and in Russian it turns into Ivan and then Vanya O_O
Thank you, although I overdid the details
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I absolutely LOVE how you made those little gaps inbetween bricks, looks fantastic! Adds a huge amount of charm to the picture
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Thank you! After some 15 hours I started hating them, but I'm glad it worked out
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It REALLY did, it's very aesthetically pleasing!
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Hello! I'm from here to give some constructive criticism. But looking at your piece, it doesn't seem like I have much to say.
You likely already know how good this is and I don't know an artist who wouldn't be proud of calling this his/her own. Also, I read in the below comments that this one took 15+ hours. Quite a persistent amount of time.
The brick is the most impressive part; the ability to keep the negative space with loose watercolors and still make it look like watercolors. The variety of the colors keeps it from looking monotone.
I think the most realistic looking part of it is the wood door. You have the grains in it, some gray to show the age, and still kept some of the negative space which is shown with the white streaks. Over all, at first glance, one would think that this was a picture of St. John's church.
The color choice for the shading was great too, using blue to represent shading. I think it was Monet who said that "there is never black, just darker shades of color":
Which is obvious in his paintings too.
Now, comes the fun part (not really), finding something to criticize. I'm a part of ProjectComment, it's what we do to improve.
The first thing that comes to mind is the lines. They seem off-proportion: the bricks over the door are sloping towards the left, this, in turn, makes the roof feel like it's sloping. I don't think this would be so noticeable if it the rest of the painting wasn't so fine.
What I'm trying to say is that there are so many tiny details in this painting to make it look realistic that when something--like proportions being off by a minuscule amount--it becomes noticeable. Now, if this was meant to be a more impressionistic painting with fewer details and looser strokes, then the proportions wouldn't matter as much. You would even expect the lines to be off because of the looseness. I'm sorry if I'm not making any sense.
Think of it this way: how do you draw a circle? Do you go straight to the contour lines, or do you sketch out the basic shape first? There's more accuracy in sketching first and then drawing the contour lines over the sketch.
How would you solve this? I'm sure there are many ways, but I use a ruler a lot. Just to sketch perspective and lines. Seems like cheating a bit, but it's still a piece of my art in the end. Or you could just go all loose like I've seen in some of your paintings:
It's just my own personal opinion, but I love the looser side much more than finely detailed paintings. It's impressive to be able to paint exactly what you see, but it's easy enough to get a camera and take a picture too. Whereas with loose paintings, you have more to absorb with the blurring of lines, and there's more room to give expression.
All in all, your paintings are very appealing to look at, and whatever I pick is likely just the nit-picking side of me. Godspeed!
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Thank you for the critique!
I did not actually sketck the bricks with pencil at all: the only pencil lines were for the general shape of the arch, the triangle of the roof and the green roof parts above. Bad habit!
i also fell that I overdid it: I do not like the very loose paintings (they are actually mere sketches), but here I could not figure out how to generalize a brick wall which is very close to the viewer and not make it too flat. My initial plan was to define just the terracotta reliefs and some bricks around them, but... I was not brave enough for that
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Well, I love it either way.
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Спасибо! *купил новые странные пигменты и основательно с ними поиграл*
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The detail of the engraved images towards the top and the subtle green accents are wonderful.
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Wow...that brick texture is awesome...and the wood...it had to take lots of hours of work
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Thank you! Yes, it took some 15 hours more than planned..
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