Saturday, March 21, 2020

Heidi's hammocks in Corfu trees

 Here is Heidi's gouache painting of hammocks among trees. I think that the painting has much more life than the photo she based the her painting on and is successful as is. The subject matter is intriguing I think because it begs the questions, who might be using these and under what circumstances as well as where this might be. It's somewhat narrative because it lets the viewer engage in the piece by asking these questions.

I think that by adding more light to the painting than is shown in the photo the painting has more life and energy.












A few things to consider in future works.

4. In the photo we see that the foreground hammocks are substantially larger than the red one in the background. If Heidi were to continue working on this painting that might be something she could address to support the illusion of spatial depth that we as artists often try to create  using linear perspective. Linear perspective deals with, among other issues, scale relationships as objects recede in space.

1. Even if the scale of the hammocks are not addressed she might consider bringing the color and shapes of the ground and background foliage through from the right side of the painting and continue into the space between the hammock and the main tree.


 In this alternative image I've increased the size of the two forward hammocks which adds to the illusion of depth in the painting.
2. I've also slightly simplified the shape of the tree's right side, moved it to the left and tilted it slightly to the right which is something that appears to be happening in the original photo reference. I like the idea of creating a bracket or half of a parenthesis to highlight the two forward hammocks. This is a good time to mention that I think it was a good idea to eliminate the third blue hammock seen in the photo.
In photoshop I moved the hammocks apart a little bit.

 This is a quick alternative idea to consider if the intention is to pull the viewers focus to the center of the picture and to push the background object towards the background.
3. Heidi's painting also shows on the left edge, a pretty prominent shape of light. We might consider if the shape, which works pretty well as is, might pull our focus a little. We can lesson the pull by knocking the value and contrast down a bit and therefore creating more focus on the hammocks in the center of the painting. Sometimes it benefits artists to let go of things in a scene that aren't supporting the main focus or idea of the piece.

Overall a nice painting that pulls me in. I like the loose style that Heidi is developing.

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