Wednesday 30 November 2011

Constructive Criticism

Two days ago I thought this painting was finished but wasn't quite sure.  It helped to have a friend, who is the least arty person I know, mention that the bit above the sun needed lightening up - which then made me look at it again and realise she was right.  Also, as she is non-arty and usually impressed with anything I do, no matter how bad, for her to notice a fault meant it was glaring.
Then my son, who is arty, mentioned tonal values and unifying the painting by bringing more orange into the sky...and I knew that he was right as he has a pretty keen eye for these things himself.

So after an afternoon of working on this, I can confidently say that it is now finished.  I always find it so odd that you can work on a painting so closely but never see something that needs correcting even though it is right under your nose.  Once I spent hours drawing and painting a Greek house, only to have my tutor point out that the perspective of every single line of it was completely wrong - could I see it? Nope! But once it was mentioned, suddenly it was clear that it looked like the crazy house from a fairground.  Do any of you have this problem or is selective blindness just peculiar to me?

3 comments:

Magpie Magic said...

The painting looks fabulous! And, no, it's not just you. I always get someone in my family - usually Ben - to look at all my art before I post it. It's normal I think when you're that close to a picture not to be able to draw back and look at it objectively. It's hard, especially when you put lots of work into it. xoxo

Soggibottom said...

Waited a while to see this :-) X X X

Anonymous said...

It looks absolutely amazing. I wish I had your talent. And as for selective blindness, I have it always! And I'm usually stubborn when my only critic, my boyfriend, points out something it needs. However, I enjoy your work and that you can actively flow with the criticism.