birthday present for my dad

[ten]

Hi,

last night i finished my first mypaint picture, actually I think it's probably about the first thing I have painted since schoolboy art lessons (about twenty years ago) - generally I draw line cartoons, sometimes with some cell coloring (you can see I stuck with what I know for the foreground figures). I had a bit of a shaky start on this (because i dont know how to paint) but I really started to enjoy it towards the end. Anyway, here's the pic, it's a birthday/retirement present for my dad.



Here's what I like about it:
Overall color cohesion - lots of sunset orange
The foreground, especially the bottom right portion - i think the sunlight highlights really work.

Here's what I think could be better:
The hills in the distance - they need more something, but I dont know what, so had to give up (any suggestions?)
The sky - it probably works, but next time I think I'll try using a bigger brush size for that effect.

I welcome additional comments, I'm at the beginning of the learning curve here, suggestions from more experienced hands will really help me out.

Finally, credit to the developers - mypaint was a real joy to work with, full screen and with all the commands I needed easily accessible - zoom, change brush size, color picker (thanks maxy for telling me how it works, I love it!), great. I'll definitely be coming back to use this again next time I want to do some color work.

happy painting

[Mazui]

I like your style and the colours.

I welcome additional comments, I'm at the beginning of the learning curve here, suggestions from more experienced hands will really help me out.

You asked for it.

I'm not that experienced, but I do have a few suggestions that might make a difference:




Also, be careful not to draw shadow lines on top of the highlights as you have done on the nearest hill on the left. It looks sloppy.

It looks like you made the hills green at first. I'd remove all traces of that.

[ten]

wow, thanks very much for the in depth thoughts! really helpful!

You're right, when i first blocked the hills in they were green, i thought I had removed all traces but apparently not! well spotted! It took me a couple of views to realise you'd added a bit of paint to the image i posted, that made your points really easy to understand, thanks for taking the time (I guess that's when you spotted the green).

I agree with everything you said. Compositionally, i definitely should have spent a little more time getting the shape of the hills right in pencil before starting to pencil. More graduation in the painting would have helped too.

I (probably) won't rework this picture any more (got a deadline - my dad's birthday), but I'll definitely remember your comments next time I am painting. thanks for posting.

[Necroskop]

I like it a lot. Looks very stylized - cartoon like. One thing bothers me is that roads ends behind hill. I would make it go to the horizon - of course it would be much narrower on distant hills.

[Mazui]

I hope you took the time to do a few final touches.

When will we see your next work?

[ten]

necroskop - thanks, cartoony was the effect I was looking for (i was going for a  Copper-type look, I'm glad you like it. Agreed about the road, again I should have put more effort into sketching the hills before I started painting. At one point it did continue as far as the middle-ground hills but the colors looked off and i couldnt get it to work, probably the problem was really the shape not the colors.

mazui - if I get time I'm hoping to make some changes before i print, frame and post it - I'll post if I manage to squeeze it in.Next work? I'm pretty busy working on a website for a webcomic (b&w so no mypaint) (when i get it online I'll post a link) but I so enjoyed painting this one that I am definitely going to come back to mypaint sometime soon. I'll be sure to post when I do. oh, and.....mazukunaiyo

[Mazui]

oh, and.....mazukunaiyo

Don't be so sure about that. It works better online though.. but let's not talk about things like that, it puts me in a bad mood.

It'll be interesting to see what the comic is about.

[ten]

I won't ever mention it again!

You might like the comic tho', I'll post a link once the site's up.

[ten]

Managed to find time for a little more work, this might have to be the end of it, I need to get it printed and post it or I'll miss the deadline (my dad's birthday). More comments welcome tho. Anyway here it is:

[Mazui]

That's better.

If you are going to mail it, there's a great risk of it getting bent. Especially if it is a large print.
I suggest you send it rolled up in a carton tube, or frame it and send it in a sturdy box with aple damping material inside.

//Ex-mailman


(Once I heard of a cartoonist who used to mail his works to the publisher, and every time it arrived bent. Eventually he put a thick steel plate in the envelope, and when it arrived they had only managed to bend it in a 90 degree angle. Don't know if that story is true, but is true that large letters regularly gets bent if they don't fit in the pile with other mail.)

[ten]

thanks for the tips, funny story. This pic's going to be A4 and I'm going to frame it, so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

tho' i am now thinking about skipping the framing and posting it in a cardboard tube.....

either way, thanks for the advice, and thanks for helping improve the picture, much appreciated.