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WIP- Coffee on the Llano, 24”x30”, oil
This is probably going to be the most difficult one I’ve done. There’s a lot going on in this one. Plaid shirt, ripples and reflections in the water, etc. I shifted the figure to off center. Does the composition work? Any comments or suggestions, as always, are welcome. The painting photo came out really dark. Painting is not quite that dark.
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Thanks @anwesha. I’m glad you think that works. I’ve been debating it since I did it but I didn’t want him dead center. My wife took this photo of a guy who looks a lot like me and works really cheap😁.
The water is a complex mix of textures, reflection and shadow. All moving.. Paint it with patience and don't hurry. A meditative exercise. Capturing the movement is very important. Are you painting wet in wet or layered?
One small thing you might want to check is the length of his left hand (our right).
This is turning out to be one of your best. Take it slow.
You've made a fine job of this so far. You are now at the final, "spot the difference" stage. When we get to this point Mark tells us to ask, How is my painting different from the source?
There are a few obvious things like the colour of the small island he's on which you may have had in mine to deal with later. (Although it works ok as it is) The answer to your question about the water and rocks will depend on how detailed or how broadly painted you want the finished painting to be. Assuming you want a high level of detail in the water then you would need to enlarge the photo to the same size as the paining so you can see where the detail is. Then it's just a question of doing lots of little brushstrokes of the correct colour and value and placing them in exactly the right place. For a foreground with water and small rocks as you have here I find a grid very useful in getting placement correct. It's tedious painting by the square inch but, for me, if I want that sort of detail that's what I have to do.
Here is an image of a few square inches at the bottom right of the photo.
Can you see the difference between this and the same section of your painting? The trick is to paint the details in each small section so there is no, or very little, difference between the photo and the painting. But you need to have OCD to do this consistently for a whole painting - especially a large one like yours. An easier alternative is to employ abstraction. Zoom in on the photo and then paint lot's of little dots and squiggles of the right colour and value in about the right place. This gives the impression of detail. But the colour and value of each little abstract dot and squiggle must be right. They only need to be in about the right place. For me, this is the only practical way of proceeding because unless you're a machine you cannot reproduce every pixel.
If you want a boarder, more painterly look, then you are on the right track so far. Again, play spot the difference and you will find a few areas to fix. For example, the sky reflections in the water in front of him are too light. This comes down to careful colour checking which you can obviously do - I mean, those jeans are perfect. But until you get really good at judging color and value on the fly you need to colour check consistently. That's why I said to go slow.
And that's about all I can say really, Hondo. It's a really good painting as it is and you could just about call it finished. Hope this post is not too long winded.
BTW, looking at that hand again, I think you got it right.
Second reference photo and latest painting pic:
I'm really wanting to see more the texture bottom of the clear stream.
It depends on the story you are trying to tell. Cool clear water. Tanic stained water. As it is that part of the story is ambiguous for me. Maybe the water is tertiary. That has nothing to do with the painting mechanics.
All in all it checks most of the boxes.