I painted the Beluga statue for the second time. This time I zoomed into the statue much further and focused on drawing and major shapes.
Overview
As I was focusing on the larger shapes I noticed that I couldn’t put enough paint on my brush to really fill in each area quickly. I think this was the product of my closer view of the subject. Although the closer view did help with getting the facial features more detailed and correct, and it is a better composition.
I fear I have a lack of longevity while painting. I find myself most of the way through the painting and wanting to be finished with it. You can even tell on this painting that I stopped early. I just didn’t feel like going any further. I may have to employ Richard Schmid’s and Harley Brown’s tactic of focusing hard on a spot in the painting that I like most and finishing as I move out. Richard Schmid even said that with this approach you can stop a painting at any time and still have some thing finished.
Here is a good example of Richard Schmid doing just that.
My hierarchy of painting importance
- Drawing
- Value
- Edges
- Composition
- Color
Drawing
How can I improve the drawing
The drawing is not too bad. The eye is way too small. And I second guessed myself with the top of the head and the placement of the pectoral fin, I’m pretty sure I had those correct before I changed them to look like what it is now. This is such a small figure it is really hard to measure, I’m going to have to think of a way to approximate small things such as this.
Value
How can I improve the values?
Values are pretty good, I learned my lesson last time and darkened up the shadow side of the white Beluga.
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.