# Peaceful landscape



## Stever

Hello all
Decided today I would work on another soft pastel landscape. Would love to get some feedback and suggestions on what could help improve my painting. I used a photo reference which I have enclosed in this post. I'm pretty happy with this one.

Thanks
Stever


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## Desdichado

What you've done is absolutely fine, creditable in fact Stevers. One comment I would add to help improve not your painting/drawing, but choice of subject. Try for something with a focal point or an interest rather than just a photographic reproduction. Something with building, a couple of figures, even a few birds all help bring your work to life and they only need indicating. Hey, you could still add them to your work if you wished. This is in no way a criticism, just a comment to help you improve generally. You made a really good start.

Jim.


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## dickhutchings

First, I don't have any experience with pastels but I think you could spend more time on this one. If it's possible with pastels, I think you need more contrast/darks in the tree to really bring it to life. Also in the foreground grasses. Objects in the foreground should be bolder and more colorful. Keep up the good work!


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## Stever

Desdichado said:


> What you've done is absolutely fine, creditable in fact Stevers. One comment I would add to help improve not your painting/drawing, but choice of subject. Try for something with a focal point or an interest rather than just a photographic reproduction. Something with building, a couple of figures, even a few birds all help bring your work to life and they only need indicating. Hey, you could still add them to your work if you wished. This is in no way a criticism, just a comment to help you improve generally. You made a really good start.
> 
> Jim.


Hi Jim
Thank you for looking and taking the time of looking and critiquing my soft pastel painting. I received a number of good suggestions and I decided to go back over my painting. I worked the whole painting over and I added a red tail hawk to the painting.
Stever


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## Stever

dickhutchings said:


> First, I don't have any experience with pastels but I think you could spend more time on this one. If it's possible with pastels, I think you need more contrast/darks in the tree to really bring it to life. Also in the foreground grasses. Objects in the foreground should be bolder and more colorful. Keep up the good work!


Hi Dick
Thanks for looking and critiquing and giving me some good suggestions went back over the soft pastel painting and I even added a red tail hawk. Not sure if the proportion is exactly correct it might be a wee bit too big? Appreciate your help.
Stever


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## Stever

Stever said:


> Hello all
> Decided today I would work on another soft pastel landscape. Would love to get some feedback and suggestions on what could help improve my painting. I used a photo reference which I have enclosed in this post. I'm pretty happy with this one.
> 
> Thanks
> Stever


Hello all
I'd like to thank everybody for looking and critiquing and making some suggestions on how to improve my soft pastel painting. Beyond this forum I had other suggestions as well which I took too improve the painting. If you compare the two soft pastel paintings of mine you'll see a big difference which I'm pretty happy with.

I believe that the color adjustments on the updated painting better match compared to original photo reference used. The main addition was the red tail hawk , my only concern with the hawk is the size proportion relative to the painting .Would love to hear additional feedback on the adjustments I had made. The photo references placed in the center between my two paintings
Stever


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## abt2k15

definately an improvement. the bird... weeeeellllll hehe. kind of tragic because you didnt paint every leaf etc for the trees but all out of a sudden you tried to fineline the bird :crying: maybe next time try to approach animals/ people the same way you do with nature  the colors pop out nice. well done.


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## Stever

abt2k15 said:


> definately an improvement. the bird... weeeeellllll hehe. kind of tragic because you didnt paint every leaf etc for the trees but all out of a sudden you tried to fineline the bird
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> maybe next time try to approach animals/ people the same way you do with nature
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> the colors pop out nice. well done.


Hi abt
Thanks for taking time to look and appreciate all your comments. Should I kill the bird? I still did not spray with any type of fixative
Stever


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## Stever

abt2k15 said:


> definately an improvement. the bird... weeeeellllll hehe. kind of tragic because you didnt paint every leaf etc for the trees but all out of a sudden you tried to fineline the bird
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> the colors pop out nice. well done.


Hi abt
I had taken a photo of the updated painting prior to drawing in the red tail hawk. Would love to hear comments from others regarding killing the hawk or letting it live.
Stever


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## abt2k15

at the very end - just go with whatver pleases _you_ the most. its your artwork at the end of the day 


cheers and best of luck


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## TerryCurley

It seems to me that the bird is the focal point of the painting. It is the affect that first catches your eye and draws you into the painting for your eye to then go all over the painting. Also the bird makes the painting come alive, there is no movement without it. It is my personal opinion that I would keep the bird.


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## dickhutchings

The bird is a nice idea and I agree with Terry, but... if the bird is going to be the prominent feature than I think you will need to re-do the bird.


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## Stever

TerryCurley said:


> It seems to me that the bird is the focal point of the painting. It is the affect that first catches your eye and draws you into the painting for your eye to then go all over the painting. Also the bird makes the painting come alive, there is no movement without it. It is my personal opinion that I would keep the bird.


Hi Terry
Thanks for looking and all your comments appreciated
Stever


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## Stever

dickhutchings said:


> The bird is a nice idea and I agree with Terry, but... if the bird is going to be the prominent feature than I think you will need to re-do the bird.


Hi Dick
Thanks for looking and appreciate all your comments. How would you redo the bird? Would you make it smaller? Would it have more details? Curious to know how exactly you're thinking?
Stever

PS: This is all new to me, I'm trying to be like a sponge and absorb and learn all I can. I appreciate everybody who has reviewed and responded to my paintings. I have so much to learn and my wife keeps reminding me, you only been doing this for a little over two months, what do you expect. Take it step by step.
Stever


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## dickhutchings

I would just try to make the wings look like they are coming from the correct part of the body. The left wing seems to be too far back. It's a little large for flying into the tree so it must be a foreground bird which means it will need a little more detail if that's possible. Or make it smaller.

This is too much detail but I think you want something along this line.


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## abt2k15

well as of now the bird really sticks out with its wrong proportions. i know what you tried to illustrate with the wing but it didnt work hence to me it looks like they have different positions. idk - maybe try drawing some different bird shapes on a seperate sheet to see how you can get best results. its very difficult position in any case because if it was a huge bird it would be the size of one wing ( based on the bird size you drew ).. maybe dont detail them that much and make a couple of birds.


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## abt2k15

i did a little overpaint to show what i meant .


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## Stever

dickhutchings said:


> I would just try to make the wings look like they are coming from the correct part of the body. The left wing seems to be too far back. It's a little large for flying into the tree so it must be a foreground bird which means it will need a little more detail if that's possible. Or make it smaller.
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> This is too much detail but I think you want something along this line.
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> [iurl="http://www.artistforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=39185&d=1469635914"]
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Hi Dick
Appreciate your explanation and suggestions
Thanks
Stever


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## Stever

abt2k15 said:


> i did a little overpaint to show what i meant .


Hi abt,
I appreciate your input suggestions menu example overlay
Thanks again. I have to think about what I want to do with this the great thing with pastels used to easily correct things prior to fixation
Stever


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## Stever

*Redo of bird*



abt2k15 said:


> i did a little overpaint to show what i meant .


Hello all painters

So over the past day I spent a bit of time redoing a number of my soft pastel paintings which I believe improved a couple of them. This one with the landscape with originally the red tail hawk being too big, I've decided to go back and redo this painting and hopefully I have the proportions of the birds correct now? I think it looks a lot better than before, tell me what you guys think?
Thank you all again for your help.
Stever


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## TerryCurley

It looks great. A very relaxing picture.


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## Stever

TerryCurley said:


> It looks great. A very relaxing picture.


Hi Terry
Thanks so much.
Stever


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## Susan Mulno

I like the new hawk!


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## Stever

Hi Susan,
Thanks, happy with end result.
Thanks for your help.
Stever


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## dickhutchings

I know we've kind of beat this to death but you've come a long way with this. Congratulations on learning and improving. Are you interested in any more suggestions for this or would you rather move on?


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## Stever

dickhutchings said:


> I know we've kind of beat this to death but you've come a long way with this. Congratulations on learning and improving. Are you interested in any more suggestions for this or would you rather move on?


Hi Dick,
Yes always open to suggestions, bring it on.
Stever


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## dickhutchings

OK then. I took the liberty to rework it a little using GIMP. I removed some of the weirdness from the tree and centered the trunk. I also blurred the line of the foreground grasses by bringing some of the yellow into the grasses and some of the green into the yellow area, very randomly. I also removed the straight line from the background trees. There's more could be done but I think you'll learn something from this. These are useful tips for future paintings.


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## Stever

dickhutchings said:


> OK then. I took the liberty to rework it a little using GIMP. I removed some of the weirdness from the tree and centered the trunk. I also blurred the line of the foreground grasses by bringing some of the yellow into the grasses and some of the green into the yellow area, very randomly. I also removed the straight line from the background trees. There's more could be done but I think you'll learn something from this. These are useful tips for future paintings.
> View attachment 40058
> View attachment 40066


Hi Dick,
Thank you for taking all the time by showing the examples of suggested changes. I truly appreciate your time, thank you.
Stever


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## dickhutchings

Your welcome. I'm just having fun with art and in this case, because I'm at work, yours.

BTW, I really don't think you should make these changes but rather keep them in mind as you do new work. I wouldn't want you to copy me in any way.


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