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Vote - Robinest Robin? (1 Viewer)

P

Painter-Lynne

Active member
Hi - thanks for dropping by. I was hoping there was the facility to vote like in some other forums, but not to worry. I hope you'll give your opinion ...

Which of the images below do you think I should work up in to a finished painting? I think all of them could work, so would like your help to decide which one.

robinA-B2.jpg
robinC-D.jpg


A) Spirit of Winter. Snow laden sky, thick frost on branches. White and browns image save for the red on the fluffed up Robin.

B) Sitting in amongst the holly (perhaps ivy too) with bright red berries complimenting the red of the Robin. B1 - close up, B2 - further back.

C) Waiting by the gate. Something flowery in the background with a cottage garden gate. Green and white dominating.

D) Gardeners little helper. Perching on a fork'andle with wire worm, perhaps, in bill and yellow Autumnal birch leaves.

Robins are so Christmassy. Wishing you all a good Christmas, all the best. And thank you.
 
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A or D but i think A has better potential, imo :t:
I love these drawings and the ones you did of the tree sparrows, i think you have talent.
 
(d) for me sums up Robins for me. Always out to help when the gardening is being done, although I have to say that is a mighty big fork given the size of the robin!
 
These are all great ideas... so much so that you may get different votes from different people:) My votes are A & C and if I were to choose I would probably go A because it seems more natural looking - especially the bird...
 
I want to paint A myself, go for it, they could all feasibly work, B could perhaps have some jiggering done to it, maybe stick the robin further away to add a different plane to it, c is a lovely composition, stick a lesser whitethroat there instead and it's bird art, but keep it as a robin and it's christmas card, it's unfair how a nice composition like that can be prejudiced by the bird. In short, a is a sure winner, and all of them are worth exploring in some way.
 
Another vote for "A". I prefer the natural setting to either "C" or "D", and the use of negative space is more generous than either "B1" or "B2".
 
Another vote for the more natural looking A. Unless you're after a christmas card image, in which case, D.
The problem with robins is they almost always end up looking like christmas card designs wether you want them to or not!

Woody
 
I'd go with A or C. I love gates and doorways so that will have influenced me but I think that one has aless Christmassy feel to it.
 
I guess I ought to vote on this ;)

I like A, although D does convey something of the behaviour of Robins around us. As Woody says D would make a good Christmas card
 
Hi - just popping in (on my lunch hour) to say thank you to everyone. Hope more forum users will vote.

I think, though I'll admit I've not done a proper count up - that A is looking like the clear winner.

Interesting what lots of you are saying about Christmas cards, though I think discussing this fully is probably for another thread.

Thanks again everyone - keep em coming. You don't have to explain or justify why you've picked what you've picked, though I am of course interested in your views if you want to state them.
 
I like A a lot but C has a bit more of what you seem to be looking for, that association with us and Christmas. Having a man-made object like the gate in the painting seems to facilitate that association. The plain "in nature" settings don't quite pull that off. But I do like the composition of A very much. Can't wait to see your finished painting.
 
Ok, the count as I calculate it (Where a definite preference expressed - one mark assigned. Where devided preference expressed - a proportionate mark ie:0.5, 0.3 assigned).

A = 7.5
B1 = 1.5
B2 = 0
C = 3
D = 1

Clear winner = A - I have a suspicion that this being a "birder's" forum has influenced the result. Interesting. I need to ask myself who I will be trying to sell the work to, do I? Or put another way - who buys paintings of birds? Just sharing my thoughts. Not expecting opinions on this - it's probably been discussed previously anyway? Thank you everyone. Am busy with other work, but will develop this and post the finished thing in this forum (will be a while) as you've been kind enough to express interest in seeing the work.
 
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Bit late but I would go for A if I were wanting to sell this to a birder. Purely because there are already so many variations of robins with holly and ivy on christmas cards. I have a robin that comes to my garden and he has taken to waiting out there first thing in the morning when I come out to replenish the bird table- just so that he is first in line for the food. Here he is:

2137235655_5aa81974a6.jpg
 
I like A too but think C could be equally good as you can play about with the texture (is that the right word? |:$| ) of the fence post and gate latch.

I'm not too keen on D, to be honest - it just seems a bit twee seeing a Robin on a spade handle. |^| Perhaps it's just me though as I like to see birds in a more natural setting.

Love the sketches though - did they take long to do or do you just doodle them and add bits here and there until you were happy with the finished result? My 'sketches' look just like that - doodles!!! |^|
 
Hi - thanks for these votes everyone - great photo KittyKat. That's a total robin pose there.

Paul thanks for your comments, I agree that D is cliche. Cliches are cliches for a reason however, so as an artist I will often explore them.

The sketches, Gill, don't take long at this stage, 10 minutes if that. They are, I suppose, a doodle as I'm only looking to identify the general arrangement of the image and see if the idea could work. It's only practice, so keep doodling.

A is clearly romping away at 9.5 - though I'm finding it interesting that C is the image in second place with a score of 3.5, while the others are unchanged.
 
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