First two Painting Feedback

DryPaintBrush

I tried painting this from an image on my screen. I tried color matching but it still turned out way too light. It took way too long and the palette got so messy.  (I cleaned my brushes so I won't be touching it while wet)

I was aiming for a smooth texture, as can be seen on the gray smooth rock below the brownish rock on the left, but i ended up improvising the stone textures and making it up as I went along.

It took about 8 hours to complete this roughly 7x12 painting. The sky got botched after I dropped a dirty brush on it.

Below is the first still life attempt. The colors are a little warm here because of the lighting used to take the picture. It took a  while and i changed by perspective multiple times from moving around. No idea how to capture the aluminum.Perhaps using darker values with pure tit. white would help?

I like how the bottom half of the yellow tube turned out.

Any advice on improving would be appreciated.

DryPaintBrush

The bottom one took roughly 5-6 hours D= including setting up and tracing the still life (no proportional divider yet).

GTO

These look like fantastic firsts.  I especially like the paint tubes.  I don’t think I would change anything on that painting other than signing it.
I work from still lifes so I can’t comment on matching colors on a screen. But I can imagine they might appear lighter.  

tassieguy

These are excellent first paintings. I especially like the tubes. 

There's no secret when it comes to improving - just paint. You'll find that as you get more experience, colour checking and mixing will get quicker and easier. But realism takes time. If it takes you 8 hours to do a 7 X 12 (which would e quick for me) then that's how long it takes. 

heartofengland

The costal scene is lovely.
You have chosen an image with interest, movement and contrast. The shadows, highlights and colours within the grey rocks are really effective. You've also found colours in the sand/cliffs which are really interesting. I even like your wavy horizon, it's got me imagining low hills or islands half lost in the haze.

What did you struggle with?
What are your painting ambitions?

DryPaintBrush

@heartofengland

Thank you.  think it turned out well despite not being accurate to the source photo. The issues I have could probably be fixed with a bit more time on it.  I guess the issue was the expectation of vs the reality, but obviously I'm just a beginner lol.

I struggle with drawing and proportion - I traced the shapes of these- but I'm waiting on a proportional divider to practice freehand.  I 'd like to be able to paint stuff in a way that I think is pleasing, satisfying end results.

I'm going to try this scene again but larger in a few weeks/months.I'll try to go smoother with the foreground and darken the values a bit. This looks more of a mid afternoon scene than the late afternoon it truly is, so I'd like to capture that.

Gary_Heath

I think you're doing great.  Keep going.

jay80

These are both great, well done.  I especially like the tubes of paint.  The metal on the tube closest is cracking.