Interested in Critical Analysis Regarding Eyeflow & Composition (In Progress Painting)

jameswood037 wrote

on 18 Oct 2011 11:53 PM

Jay…. painting shows you’re a professional and creative painter. I don’t know what things you need to draw there are. We are not necessarily equipped with the boldness to describe an art work. Appreciating art for some artists entails the ability to explain their pieces because every art work conveys a message. Therefore, as artists, it is their job to pass on the message that is portrayed in you works.

This mentality is often associated with the capability to think critically which the art world implies as a demand. In the event where you are presenting a painting, you are asked about your inspiration. It would be an awkward situation if your answer is without depth.

You know in art colleges many students were written critical abstract essay about painting.  They described one effective and simple practice to develop critical thinking in this situation is to have a menu of descriptive words. These words are used to associate your thoughts and the artwork itself making it comprehensible for you and your audience.

WFMartin wrote

on 22 Oct 2011 2:06 PM

I don't know just what you're trying to determine here, but I'll explain precisely what my eye did, as I viewed this.  (Don't know whether it's something you want, or not.)

My eye was first drawn to the two green lights in the upper center of the painting.  My gaze then drifted down to the horse (which did not seem to be very prominent at first glance), and then to the right, to encompass the carriage.  Then my gaze simply followed that same path, in reverse, to once again come to rest on the two street lights.

Don't know whether that pleases you, or not, but that is exactly how I viewed this piece.  Nearly everything else in the painting was virtually non-existent, in terms of "interest".

Tammyl67 wrote

on 15 Nov 2011 6:45 PM

Maybe I'm weird, but I started in the center where the purple light then my eye flowed to the carriage.

The lines at the bottom kind of threw me off a bit.

Can't wait to see it finished!

Paul Sullivan wrote

on 16 Nov 2011 9:59 AM

Jay—

Allow me to be very direct in offering my thoughts about your painting. 

I don't think you have an "eye-flow" problem here.  I think the problem here is values. Much of the painting is in the highest contrast, black (or almost black) and white. All of this high contrast is screaming for attention. The white pathway markings on the street are so dominate that they are taking away from the carriage, your center of interest. 

You might use a piece of workable (treated) acetate as an overlay and roughly paint out the walk-ways or tone them down considerabely to see how this looks. My suggestion for the future is to make a complete, rough value sketch in black and white at about one third size. Work out the problems of contrast at that point in black, white and two or three grays. Then make a color rough sketch that interpets your value sketch into color.

Contrast is one of the most important elements of picture design. There has been much too much emphasis on eye-flow in the teaching of pictorial composition. Now we have people thinking of picture design as road maps for the eye. Eye movement is important but the most important thing is establishing the center of interest. There are no hard fast rules for picture design. There are only guidelines.

Best of luck—

Paul Sullivan