Pattie’s favorite animal in all the world is the Beluga whale and today I painted a figurine of hers that features this majestic creature.
Overview
I had Pattie pick from her massive shelf of her favorite trinkets for this still life. She has always loved Beluga whales.
The figure is really tiny and really forced me to generalize most of it. I will definitely do another painting of this one, I really liked the colors and value changes in the waves.
My hierarchy of painting importance
- Drawing
- Value
- Edges
- Composition
- Color
Drawing
How can I improve the drawing
Simple and obvious how I can improve here. I just need to spend more time drawing. I just rush through it too fast. I have to keep reminding myself that it is the most important part of any painting striving for a semblance of realism. I’m going to post an image of the figure generalized through Photoshop, tomorrow I want to focus on the generalization of the waves.
Value
How can I improve the values?
I noticed tonight that I have gotten the values incorrect on the shadow side of a white figure incorrect again, I noticed it previously on the dolphins, and now again here. The shadow side of a white object seems to be a trouble spot for my paintings currently.
Edges
Not much focus on edges again.
Composition
I kept the composition simple and didn’t focus on it at all. The only thing I wanted to do was keep the entire figure in the painting.
Color
Not much of a focus on color here. I just recognized which areas were warm and which were cool and tried to keep them somewhat true.
