# New to painting



## Richardson111508 (Aug 15, 2020)

Hello! I’m brand new to oil painting and I have learned the little bit that I do know from watching old episodes of Bill Alexander. I’ve painted three oil pieces now and just wanted to share some photos to see if anyone has any quick advice or feedback for improvement. Appreciate all constructive criticism! 

The pink sunset mountains was my first attempt and they turned out more like discolored pyramids haha.


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## Steve Neul (Jul 28, 2020)

I'm new to painting myself so don't consider me an expert. I've also never seen a video from Bill Alexander. To me the mountains look like they need more detail like this picture. I have seen Bob Ross paint mountains and he would drag a knife over the mountain with a knife with white to give it a detail of rocks and snow.


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## Richardson111508 (Aug 15, 2020)

Yes, Bill Alexander is very, very similar to Bob Ross. If you aren’t familiar with him, he was Bob Ross’ teacher! I have seen that knife drag technique and have tried it but had a really hard time getting the same look. I thought I may need to thicken my paints with talc to get that “frosted” detail look but that didn’t work for me either. You should definitely watch Bill Alexander on YouTube - he is very entertaining!


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## Steve Neul (Jul 28, 2020)

Actually I've never tried the knife trick myself. When I paint I'm more drawn to portrait painting so I haven't had need for that technique. This is the only landscape I've painted. It's Yosemite and I did all of it with a brush. I did use what Bob Ross showed on the trees dabbing the paint on with the end of a brush.


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## Richardson111508 (Aug 15, 2020)

That looks great! Nice work!


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## Steve Neul (Jul 28, 2020)

Richardson111508 said:


> That looks great! Nice work!


Thankyou, Wife wanted a picture over the sofa so I bought a 24x36 canvas. Since we had just got back from Yosemite I was inspired to try.


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## Richardson111508 (Aug 15, 2020)

Well, I think it looks great. How long have you been painting now?


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## CokeR (Aug 16, 2020)

Quick advice is 

1. you need more lost edges, blend the shaps together, indicate rather than stating everything
2. for landscapesn it is often divided into foreground, midground and background, seems you missed out the foreground and the background is not pushed back


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## Arduy (May 31, 2020)

Sorry, but I wasn't permitted to reply to you privately due to the forum's policies. So I'll reply to you here. I found your pictures! and, about your pictures posted here > I don't live in those kind of places depicted (very very beautiful places), so that reflects on my kind of landscapes. Another thing I don't like are paintings that look like photographs. Your paintings are very stylized and not photographic and: the mountains look like mountains, the trees look like trees, the water is great, and it is an original style of yours. I'd make the mountains slightly more detailed if they are not far away, and I'd be more bold with colors, color contrasts, using colors that shouldn't be on a particular painting, but could be the color of a reflection from something, colors that could be inspired by what the sky dictates, as in a dawn or sunset time, or if the colors are a bit toned down, but reflecting light, if there is or was a storm, or raining. or if the rain stopped, and the sun just popped up. I'm not out for perfectly detailing what I see. I try to define things with color. Your detailing things is better than mine.


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## Richardson111508 (Aug 15, 2020)

Thanks to both of you! I truly do appreciate the feedback - I just hope I can continue to grow and get better. Before the pandemic, I probably wouldn’t have ever given it a try. Boredom got the best of me, so I was trying to think of new hobbies that would be enjoyable while staying home. I’ve really had fun with it so far!


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## Steve Neul (Jul 28, 2020)

Painting is like anything else. The more you practice the better you get.


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## Ally (Nov 14, 2020)

Hi, 

These look like an excellent start! I'd say first impressions is that you havent got much saturation or vibrancy in the foreground which make them seem a little flat. The colours in the third picture seem more vibrant and this is my favourite. 

The thing that absolutely changed my life with painting was understanding notan-this is the idea of creating good compositions by planning paintings with only black and white simplified shapes to ensure they are attractive to the eye. All the old masters used this compositional style. Often it results in the rule of thirds- 2/3s dark vs 1/3 light or vice versa.
You can go further with it with and ensure all lights and darks are linked so you can direct where the eye goes. 

If you look at Sarolla for example all of his lights are beautifully linked drawing your eye through the painting.

I also advise genuinely planning your paintings. It's a small step but gets you thinking about composition. Do a series of notan sketches with the lights and darks emphasised in different ways to find the most pleasing, and sketch a plan of where things will go. 

Mix your paints in advance to avoid muddy colours and load you brush frequently and place the paint in one stroke, leaving it there with no blending or rubbing or fiddling.

You will find things look far more 'painterly' if you are brave with your paint placement.

Happy painting!


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## Ally (Nov 14, 2020)

Here is an example of a notan of a composition, you could simplify this even more to blocks of light and dark with no detail to do a number of quick plans of a few inches big.


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