Painting Update and Giving Critique with the Intent of Helping One Another be Better Artists

"Gentle Sunrise at Winter's Ending," 9 x 14 pastel on BFK Rives paper using a variety of pastels and a little charcoal. Still lots to do.

March 29: Worked more on the left side trees, added a touch of yellow in the sun. It’s not quite right yet, but I wanted to give a hint. I’ll make it better towards the end.

I faded the far horizon, then began working down on the left side. I better defined the path/ridge along the left side riverbank, then worked on closer ground, creating rocks and dark spaces.

The challenge is the rocks and dark areas trying to get it all to look natural. There’s no way I can totally copy the photo (which is not what I’m trying to do anyway.) There’s just too much odd detail which I can’t really see clearly. So, I’m just making lots of rocks. I’ll add more color later.

March 30: In doing show ‘n’ tell with Nan, she commented how one of the ice chunks along the front edge looked too pie shaped. Oops, it does. I quickly fixed that.

We discussed how having another set of eyes view our work really helps us. I’m always amazed how something can be staring me in the face, but I’m so busy looking at other aspects, I don’t see it until it’s pointed out to me. Duh. I love that a simple comment can open my eyes to see better. That’s when having a good fellow-artist friend is invaluable and being able to get good critique.  

I’m slowly feeling confident to give kind critique in return. I made comments on her latest work. We both agreed on the importance of giving critique in a tone showing our intention is to help one other be better at what we can do. A wrong tone can sound like fault-finding.

I am always amazed at our friendship and artistic bond. We both mostly do similar-type landscapes, but our styles and techniques are very different. She strives to be a photo realist working in a tight, specific style creating miniatures in acrylic. I work in a bigger format using pastels which, of course, is a much looser medium although I, too, strive for sharp, realistic lines.

It's wonderful to be able to share ideas, comments, and technique without either of us feeling the other has to do what is suggested.

What’s funny, too, is while she and I were discussing these things, I realized what I need to work on next is the water along that left shoreline as that’s below the rocks and layer of ice. And, even though she hadn’t said anything about that, just standing there discussing the painting allowed me to see more.