Is this so awful? (1 Viewer)

Hi, I'm Francesca from Mexico and this is the first time I publish something in this wildlife art forum, I usually post in the photography one as I am starting to learn how to photograph birds. But...actually I always loved photography but I studied art and particularly scientific illustration. Then me and my husband opened a restaurant and I spent the last nine years working there. But since I discovered birdwatching I decided to dedicate my life to birds, I am even thinking about studying biology to be able to work with them
Well, I have just painted a few birds since then, but I recently published a postcard with one of my illustrations in the Monthly Photo Competition section as this month they are accepting paintings too. Now, nobody seems to have liked it, I mean, no comments :-C
So I thought to post something here and ask you art experts if it's really so bad, or what sould I improve in order to make it better. It's just one of my first attempts but I did it with a lot of dedication and love |=)|
You can see the postcard here:
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery/showphoto.php/photo/118909/sort/1/cat/533/page/1
I hope the link will work. Please, I would love to receive any input, bad or good, about this, so you are welcome to express your opinios freely.
Thank you so much and happy Xmas to alll the BF artistic community!

It's not awful at all. From one Gallery poster to another, just because people don't post comments doesn't mean its awful. I like it. Not only are the colours striking, the way you have used the brush stroke gives the appearance of feathers.

Hi Francesca,
I think it's beautiful! And I'm very glad to finally see this bird, since I tried to find it several times during the 5 years I lived in Mexico, to no avail. Someday I'll have to come back to try again. Very nice work.

It's beautiful!

As perfect an illustration as anyone could ask for from any artist,if it was to be mounted and hung on a wall maybe it could benefit from being set against
a slightly less strident background other than pure white,maybe a very muted shade of blue or brown to lend an ''aged'' paper look?

Do not be discouraged by lack of comments from other members,there is a huge amount of artworks,photos etc on this forum.If an artwork is created with such dedication and love as yours clearly has,then surely nothing else can be asked.

I'm not an artist myself but I know art when I see it.As it stands,this is a glorious and unique piece of artwork!

We look forward to seeing more.

Matt

Thank you Mabel, Dave and Matt for your comments, it was very kind of you to cheer me up I know I have to improve so much in order to be a good bird illustrator and photographer, but I think it's all a matter of practice and dedication, isn't it?
You are right Dave, this bird is very misterious and difficult to see. I have a friend called Javier, he is a guide for Pronatura Chiapas and he said about this motmot: "if you are desperately struggling to find it forget it, you never will, but one day if you are just walking around and enjoying your birding in general, it willl suddenly be there, perched right in front of you" and it's true, that's how it worked for me! But there are almost no photos of it (or at least good ones) so I had to rely on descriptions and my own observation in order to paint it. It also has the typical morphology of a motmot, with those short wings and big head and eyes. Motmots are wonderful birds indeed.
Oh, and Matt, you are completely right about the background colour, actually I wanted to change it, but I still don't know how to do that in Photoshop! It was already a challenge for me to create the frame and insert the text. I stilll have so much to learn!
I will be visiting the wildlife art forum more frequently, I think there are definetely too few artists on BF and they are overwhelmed by photographers (at least in the gallery). Don't you think so?
I look forward to see your artwork to get some inspiration :bounce:

Francesca,

Don't worry that no one commented. Your postcard is beautiful. Don't be discouraged. You are doing great!

Awful? That is lovely! :clap::clap:

gatafrancesca said:

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Oh, and Matt, you are completely right about the background colour, actually I wanted to change it, but I still don't know how to do that in Photoshop! It was already a challenge for me to create the frame and insert the text. I stilll have so much to learn!

Click to expand...

If you want to change the white in photoshop - it depends a bit on whether the background is still a separate layer. But even if it isn't, it can be done by using the "magic wand" tool to select the white and then the "fill" tool to put in the new colour. (The other method is <<image/adjust/replace colour>> but I find that is difficult to work that on whites..)

By all means drop me a PM.

Ed K

Francesca,
It is a lovely painting. It's always hard when no one comments on your work at all--it makes you feel like you aren't even worth the trouble of someone telling your work is no good. But, that is not the case for you. I love the wisps around the beak.
My biggest suggestion is for you to get a really good set of paints instead of the 'cheap and awful' ones you are using now. It can make all the difference, not only in your work, but in the way you feel about working, which in return, will affect your work. Get some good paper also, if you don't already. Making your work important to you, makes it important to everyone else...does that make sense?

Best
Elizabeth

You've created something that is beautiful, I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of paintings that are simply the bird on a white background, but that is a matter of taste. The colours are stunningly bright and clean (something I wish I was capable of achieving.) I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

Very well painted technically and the bird is accurately drawn...

Awful? No!

Would like to see some more work, perhaps on textured paper, well done and thanks for posting!

First and foremost you are good with colour, and you can draw, and you can handle detail excellently. To echo Nick - if you make a painting against a white background, it will ALWAYS look false (as you would never, really, see abird in these circumstances). So always best to paint a suggestion of habitat - leaves, mosses, sky or whatever and then the bird will become more alive.

One other thing which you may consider - how to make the bird 'rounded' and three dimensional. This entails deciding on a light source and painting shadow at the opposite side of the bird. Look at photographs and see if you can work out precisely the direction of light. Then when you come to your painting, make the same mental notes and work out where you think the shadows should fall. Also remember that shadows aren't always just a darker tone of the nominate colour - using 'complementary' colours (opposites) can bring a painting to life.
But I go back to my first comments - what you have produced is commendable - please pursue your artwork and show us your work.
Well done.

Hi everyone! Wow, I didn't imagine I would receive so many answers Thank you!
First of all I wanted to thank Ed K: I already tried to change the white colour in Photoshop using the technique you mentioned and it worked! Great, now I learned something new :t:
Then, I would like to thank everyone else who wrote for your precious input, I really appreciated all your suggestions. It is true that I should buy some good acrylics, I hope someday I will have the opporunity to travel to Mexico City and buy some. The biggest problem for me is that where I live it's impossible to buy good paintings, papers or brushes. My mom used to send me some from Italy but now she has no money, so she just can't afford it. So I'm stuck with these cheap third world acrylics made in Mexico for now...guess I just have to try to get the best I can from them :bounce:
About the lack of background: well, I am not very good at landscapes, so even if I love realistic paintings, I am more prone to scientific illustration, with a white background. Actually the story of this motmot illustration is that it was a part of a very big plate containing 41 birds (a project that I didn't finish), all seen in profile and with no other distracting element, like some field guides are. Actually all the birds were sort of "pressed" together in order to be able to keep them all in the plate and that's why no space was left for anything else. I then separated this bird from the rest with Photoshop and deleted the parts of the other birds that were visible with the clone tool. Now, if I should paint an illustration on my own I would add some details at least in the perch, like flowers, mosses, leaves, etc. But I would probably leave a white background anyway in most of the cases. I kind of like white backgrounds actually, but that's just my personal opinion.
The absence of light and shadows in this particular case was also due to the client requirements, as they would distract the viewer from the main field marks (that's what I was told at least), but I will sure make an effort in order to make my illustrations look more three dimensional.
Thank you again everyone; your comments were most welcome! |:$|
Bye :flyaway:

Francesca, it's a beautiful little painting. I would agree with Tim, that it needs shadows and colouring to make the bird look more alive, but it's still lovely.

Hi Francesca - with regard to gatting decent artists materials - you obviously use the internet - so may I recomment 'GreatArt' as a supplier.

AMAZING!!!!!!
What sort of colour did you use, for example, pastel, paint?