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Ed's thread (26 Viewers)
- Thread starter Strandman
- Start date
Strandman
Well-known member
hello all
finally got to grips with the Redfoot- the bird he turns out something like what I had in mind, but the background looks like someone has thrown a head of lettuce into a blender: something a bit more dappled and hazy was envisaged
but onward!
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The background to the redfoot may not be as you'd envisaged Ed...but i kinda like it....!
Structure/comp of branches n foliage works well....for me at least...:cat:
Look forward to 'developments'....
http://username-beast.blogspot.co.uk/
Structure/comp of branches n foliage works well....for me at least...:cat:
Look forward to 'developments'....
http://username-beast.blogspot.co.uk/
oivind egeland
Well-known member
This is a really wonderful painting, and the surroundings are brilliant - I can almost feel the wind and sunshine. Who needs a full sketchbook when you can create an image like this back home! I would definately put this on my wall.
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Looks good Ed and at least to me looks like you've added a little specificity to your foliage. No lettuce in blender to me.
I do notice two things, and the most striking, is one I'm sure you've already considered and rejected: changing the leaf in front of the bird off to the left so that we see the full left contour of the bird. But my guess is that you've considered that and determined you wanted the bird a bit harder to find.
The other thing I wonder about is just adding a touch of added interest, either through fuller color or maybe a bit more detail, to just a couple of the leaves so that your eye keeps moving around the canvas, from bird to leaf, to leaf.
I'm always reluctant to say anything specific like this because I know with my own work I never have the slightest idea of what specific changes would add to the painting. So I always have to be suspicious when it seems so easy to spot things I'd change in someone else's painting!! There must be some name for this sort of malady
colonelboris
Right way up again
Quite a striking background there. The first RFF I saw was about a second after Mrs Boris shouting "Look! Isn't that a ..."
Yes it was.
Yes it was.
timwootton
Well-known member
Just had to note the most amazing coincidence - Ed's and Mike's thread both have exactly 113, 278 views as of 17:11, 22nd July, 2012!!!!!
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Strandman
Well-known member
bizarro
I'm enjoying a slight pause for reflection at the moment, as I seem to have been trying a bit too hard with the thick n creamy paint- culminating a quick first sploot at some oils a couple of weeks ago which proved that 1 I'm better off admiring the oils of others and 2 anything from turps to linseed seems to penetrate my lungs further than it should.
So I'm thinking it might be time for a break from being a wannabe oiler and its time to try some play with watercolours (hopefully a shot this weekend).
For the record here's where I got to the other week with what should have been Hungary pic 2: a bustard doing the stately galleon walk. Underpainting seemed OK or even promising; then the oil painting gone wrong and wiped off; and then a quick acrylic finish just to salvage something of the idea
onward!
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timwootton
Well-known member
Great! I do look forward to your self-deprecating analysis of your current works - always brings a chuckle . . . but mainly because the critiques are usually so far from the mark. Your work, it would seem to me, has been on a very real and accentuated incline for a couple of years now and the combination of life-observation, thoughtful picture planning and the culmination of quality technique in execution are instructive, educational and exciting to follow. It's a shame you're shunning the heavyweight division (although if health issues are real, then maybe worth checking out less-noxious media), but it will be to the benefit of the wet and slooshy club - so Yay to that!!!
Nice balance of the pastoral landscape and the strutty bird here - great colours too.
Welcome back . . .
Nice balance of the pastoral landscape and the strutty bird here - great colours too.
Welcome back . . .
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Couldn't agree more. And welcome back from this quarter too. I wouldn't worry about using watercolor as Tim has just shown that it can easily be a 'heavyweight' medium.
Strandman
Well-known member
finally managed a first shot at some watercolouring
this is the male of my wondrous local Hobbies, who despite vilest weather have conjured 3 bouncy young out of a leafy oak
he has the happy habit of sitting out at about 7AM when I motor past on the way to work, with low morning sun just catching his easterly aspect
saw the female come in a coupla days ago in evening sun and present a dragonfly to a juv who dropped it, so she did a flip off the branch, dropped n caught it and re-presented it; and I thought-that's one of the most perfect things I've ever seen: how to render it I'm not sure yet, may require an Ennion pastiche with white oak branches on coloured paper
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mark richards
Well-known member
I like that... very nice,mark..
timwootton
Well-known member
Lovely. And a beautiful account of one of those everyday events in the life of birds which just leaves the fortunate viewer gasping with incredulity - isn't that why we love them so? A peregrine doesn't scream out of the sky at 200+ mph to impress us, an arctic skua isn't in the least bit bothered that it leaves us smiling and shaking in disbelief at its aerial dexterity - likewise, your hobby was just correcting a simple childish mistake - but HOW!
Please do the Ennion - he'd be delighted; this subject would have captivated him immensely.
Great portrait to start the ball rolling - love the way you've taken the primaries and tail just that bit out of focus by understating the paintwork. Cracker.
Please do the Ennion - he'd be delighted; this subject would have captivated him immensely.
Great portrait to start the ball rolling - love the way you've taken the primaries and tail just that bit out of focus by understating the paintwork. Cracker.
solitaryVSong
Well-known member
Really a complex but simple painting Ed. Complex in the variety of focus and detail like Tim says but simple in that you can take in in quickly. And all based on a moment on the way to work! I'd say a great accomplishment and bodes very well for you and watercolor.
Great stuff Ed...more please....
As you know i spend countless hours in the field searching for these delightful falcons and they never cease to enthrall me...
You capture them beautifully....
ps....i remember a pic you put up some time ago of a Hobby and i think its the best i've ever seen....:cat:
They are special....:t:
http://username-beast.blogspot.co.uk/
As you know i spend countless hours in the field searching for these delightful falcons and they never cease to enthrall me...
You capture them beautifully....
ps....i remember a pic you put up some time ago of a Hobby and i think its the best i've ever seen....:cat:
They are special....:t:
http://username-beast.blogspot.co.uk/
mattybohan
Well-known member
that is a definite winner. Great sky. Just the right amount of info to keep it fresh and lively.
colonelboris
Right way up again
Nice! I like the simplicity of the Hobby very much. Had juvenile Australian Hobby in the park across the road last week, which was a lifer for the Mrs.
oivind egeland
Well-known member
What a lovely painting! It's all in the eyes - and you have certainly given this bird the hobby look. I also love the shape of the head, a subtle feature that is so easy to get all wrong... You are a lucky man to have these birds breeding in your neighbourhood.
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