Club Night: Critiques with Helen Talbot
Helen Talbot returned with lots of helpful advice for those who brought their paintings. Her thoughts included:
Step back to consider your over all composition: is it triangular, circular, diagonal? Do your colours, brush strokes support this? How does your eye move around the picture. Are there strong verticals or horizontals? If something isn’t working and you’re not sure what it is, try covering the best area with a piece of paper and looking again. Try holding it upside down.
Remember the rule of thirds. Look at your dominant shapes; are they leading the eye round? Is there balance?
Remember complimentary colours if you want an area to stand out. Remember warm and cold colours; do they bring items forward or push them back? Is there enough contrast?
Try tracing paper to try out improvements - or use soft pastels, which wipe off oils and acrylics.
With watercolours, use sharp coloured pencils or felt tips to enhance fine details.
With portraits, try to simplify or blur the background so that the focus is on the face. With animals, decide whether you are painting a landscape that features animals or a portrait that has a landscape background. If the animal is moving across from right to left, place it in the first right third to enhance the feeling of movement.
When painting reflections in water, break them up a little to give the impression of movement. Also, remember that reflections distort slightly.
Two useful colour mixtures: indigo + sepia = a rich dark grey. Ultramarine + black = deep dark blue.
Don’t be afraid to use unconventional tools such as card, sponge scourers for additional texture.
Don’t overwork hands, fingers, faces; an impression is usually enough - anything else is a point of distraction. Remember that hands are as big as the face.
When planning your composition, try cropping it very close, perhaps cutting off details at the edge for more energy.
