Up the Creek

Teacher Painting

"Canada Creek - Greyscale Study" 11x13" Oil on Canvas by Richard Robinson.

Teacher Painting

"Up the Creek" 11x14" Oil on Canvas by Richard Robinson.

Resource

Student Painting

"RR Workshop 37" 11x14" Acrylic on Canvas by Howard Bagley

Hi Howard, this is a great painting with just a few adjustments needed. Your colour is beautiful and the drawing is good, the brushwork is confident and interesting. Three small changes I'd make would be to add some soft edges and small details to the edge of the green tree, make the background shapes a little more tree-ish, and make the white flowers/weeds smaller in the background. That's it. Otherwise, great work!

Student Painting

"Workshop 37" 9x12" Oil on Canvas by Janet Buckton

Bold colour, Janet and lovely and warm in the foreground contrasting with the cool background. I get the feeling the background is a little too blue and could do with a touch of grey-green in it to create some connection with the foreground. My painting is a little guilty of that too. Also the darkest dark in the foreground is too blue making it stand out whereas it should recede beneath the mid values and lights. If the left side of the tree was a little darker it would add more roundness to it - at the moment the value is very similar all over and it's causing it to flatten out a little. You've done very well with your edges creating depth by contrasting sharp edges in the foreground with sift edges in the background. Overall you've made a very good copy of the demo painting and I hope it helps inform your other work in some way.

Student Painting

"Dark Passage 2" 5x7" Oil on Canvas by Nancy Sands

Hi Nancy, I do like the design of this a lot but unfortunately it's all got a bit muddy and garbled. Your cool darks have mixed with your warm lights through too much dabbing and not keeping your brush clean enough and reloading with fresh colour. Can I suggest you take another look at the demo video and follow the process more strictly of darks, then mid values, then lights. Also the thickness of the paint is important. If you put too much medium in your darks to start with it makes it hard to paint over and if you put too much medium in your lights they'll tend to mix in with the darks. If you give yourself a bigger canvas you'll have more room to move too. You can do it!

Student Painting

"Anglers Retreat" 8x10" Acrylic on Canvas by Sarah Bottjer

Hi Sarah, there's a real jolly feeling to this piece caused largely by the warm colours in the foreground and the sparking little details throughout. The figure is a nice addition too but unfortunately he's about a third the size he should be compared to the rest of the scene which gives him the appearance of a garden gnome. The value structure of the painting is good, including the depth you've created in the background, though the V shape there is a little too regular an the sky holes are creating more of a lacework pattern than actual tree shapes. That blue sky should also be reflected in the water. By flattening out the base of the river banks you've lost some of the shape interest. A few things to look at but overall a good result.

Student Painting

"Looking Down Creek" 12x16" Oil on Canvas by Toska M. Courbron

Hi Toska, good to see you've made this scene more your own by changing things around. The composition is well balanced and your brushwork is bold and purposeful. You've created a lot of depth with your receding blues in the background which is great although I'd expect to see a little more of that blue reflected in the water. Some of your darks are too grey where they should lean more towards the local colour of the object. For example the dark inside the main bush should tend more towards green, as should its cast shadow on green grass. You've made the same mistake in the majority of your shadows and it is a good example of 'muddy' colour, which is in fact the correct value but not the correct hue. 'Muddy colour' is just colour that doesn't fit into it's surroundings. Take more care with your vertical reflection strokes in the water to make them perfectly vertical otherwise it gives the impression of sloping water. Also, with a blue sky I would expect the horizontal strokes over the water to be more blue. Just a few things to think about. Good work.