Author Topic: Paintings (some nudity) - 8th painting is up!  (Read 2800 times)  Share 

Hobbes

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Paintings (some nudity) - 8th painting is up!
« on: 03 Aug 2005, 23:38 »
Hey all,

Turn over to page 2 for paintings 6 to 8. :)

Last time I painted Calvin. Today's subject is a bit more mature... it's also an acrylic painting and I'm trying to discover a style here.

WARNING: This painting is a nude... if male nudity offends you, please scroll down for my next painting. :)







Who knows, one day this might be a useful skill to use for cutscene-material? :)

For now I'm looking for critics on this painting... it's somewhat inspired by a Spanish painter whose name I've forgotten...


P.S. I'm pondering about modifying this painting... for example, at first I thought it was rather artsy to not have the eyes there (e.g. have them closed) but then I felt like it wasn't finished this way... and there are some other things that need fixing, imho.

P.S.2 Instead of littering the Critic's Lounge with several threads, I've decided to add my paintings to this thread.
« Last Edit: 03 Jan 2006, 16:20 by Hobbes »

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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #1 on: 04 Aug 2005, 01:02 »
It looks rather finished, but I can't help but feel it's still unfinished. Have you studied in anatmoy before? If not, I suggest finding some place online that can give you a quick rundown...

I hate to be the one to point it out, but his penis is rather low. Normally it stems from the center of the pubic hair...
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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #2 on: 04 Aug 2005, 05:42 »
His hips seem wide and feminine. Also, the figure looks very flat. Perhaps you could add a light source, or change the shading to imply three-dimensional shapes.

Was the painter El Greco of mannerism fame?
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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #3 on: 04 Aug 2005, 07:29 »
I dig the style as is, I don't think deeper shadows are needed.  The only problem is that the anatomy is too incorrect I think.  The penis should be up higher, and the legs shorter (or knees higher whatever).  Other than that I think it has a very nice rough quality to it which gives it a nice emotional quality.  I also like the tiny tilt, really helps with the shift towards emotion instead of realism.
« Last Edit: 04 Aug 2005, 07:33 by LilBlueSmurf »

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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #4 on: 04 Aug 2005, 20:50 »
I would think that the painting is ready as it is. To me it appears to be expressing tha growing misery of the world itself. This as a global wiev, but individually it brings up the wakening awareness to oidipalism and yet sexualism as not bipartite nor simple but rather most complicated...
It's hard to give arguments in a foreign language, but I hope I managed to say what I meant...

In all, I really like the way you use complementary colours to bring out the figure from the background, but yet not too much. I like it, in fact, if I had the money or the space, I'd buy it! :D

Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #5 on: 04 Aug 2005, 21:16 »
I liked the art style. But as it was already said, the penis is too low. This disturbs a bit. Also the color of men could me more saturated (or bright).

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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #6 on: 04 Aug 2005, 21:34 »
Well... that style reminds me of some impressive art, which I've seen much enough yet. I'd say I prefer much more realistic style and a theme of the beauty of female's, not male's body in art. On the other hand your work looks very atmospheric and has something, which I'd call a "personality". Anyway, art of that kind isn't a good example for critics, due to fact that every painter have his own personal intentions and only they really matter. But there's one simple question at the end...

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Hobbes

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Re: Male painting (nudity)
« Reply #7 on: 04 Aug 2005, 23:52 »
Thanks for all the comments so far! Some confirm what I already concluded myself, so below, a short lowdown... :)

It looks rather finished, but I can't help but feel it's still unfinished. Have you studied in anatmoy before? If not, I suggest finding some place online that can give you a quick rundown...

I hate to be the one to point it out, but his penis is rather low. Normally it stems from the center of the pubic hair...

Anatomy... the thing is, I'm not particularly good at that stuff. My method here was to first fire up Poser (that handy people-program) and I modelled a very simple male character somewhat like how I wanted the painting to be. Then I printed that out and did a sketch on my canvas. That proved a very hard thing for me, because I drew the figure on the canvas completely wrong. :)

Of course I fixed the sketch an awful lot, but some problems still remained. I just ordered a book on drawing human anatomy, so I hope that's a helpful thing to work with. I'll keep practising on it. :)

And the penis, yes... it's indeed too low. I thought about drawing even more pubic hair to sort of "catch up" with it, but I think that'll just look really stupid.

His hips seem wide and feminine. Also, the figure looks very flat. Perhaps you could add a light source, or change the shading to imply three-dimensional shapes.

Was the painter El Greco of mannerism fame?

The hips... good point there. Now that you've mentioned it, I can see that for myself. I didn't notice it before. :)

The painter, actually, is someone called Xavier Bartomeus who is likened to El Greco in several ways, apparently. Google came up almost blank on the man, though... so all I have to go by is a little bit of info in a book. :)

The painting he did was this one:



Don't know if I should've spoiled that one here... kinda takes away the originality from my own work. ;)

About the shading, it's true... I first wanted to do a really dark-shaded thingy (like the painting from Bartomeus) but once the contrast of the dark background and the light skin came about, I liked that too.

I dig the style as is, I don't think deeper shadows are needed.  The only problem is that the anatomy is too incorrect I think.  The penis should be up higher, and the legs shorter (or knees higher whatever).  Other than that I think it has a very nice rough quality to it which gives it a nice emotional quality. I also like the tiny tilt, really helps with the shift towards emotion instead of realism.

Do you mean the tilt in perception? E.g. that it appears you're looking at him from slightly above? That was what I intended, although I'm not very clear about what "tilt" you meant. If that is indeed the tilt you meant: cool. :)

I would think that the painting is ready as it is. To me it appears to be expressing tha growing misery of the world itself. This as a global wiev, but individually it brings up the wakening awareness to oidipalism and yet sexualism as not bipartite nor simple but rather most complicated...
It's hard to give arguments in a foreign language, but I hope I managed to say what I meant...

In all, I really like the way you use complementary colours to bring out the figure from the background, but yet not too much. I like it, in fact, if I had the money or the space, I'd buy it! :D

Thanks for the kind comments! Although I'm not really sure what oidipalism nor bipartite mean, it's neat to hear someone has such thoughts about this. :)

Also, the space to spare shouldn't be too much of a problem... It's only 30 x 45 centimeters big... and as for the price? I have no idea how much shipping costs. :)

Once again, thank you all for the comments here. I've currently refrained from "touching up" on this painting.. I'm somewhat scared I'll mess it up completely. I'll have a go at another painting one of these days and see if I can paint decent eyes on that one... :)

If you have anything else to add about it, please do!

Hobbes

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Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #8 on: 07 Aug 2005, 15:37 »
A new painting!

And yes, it's also a nude... with fur.

It's, indeed, a cat. My own critique is that the eyes are too big for the poor thing's head. So, I think, are the ears. Although my cats have ridiculously large ears, so this could exist in reality...

I experimented a bit with aquarel-painting here... still completely done with acryl-paint, but thinned with water in some spots. This gives the curtain and the cat a certain washed-out feel, imho.

Anyway, I'm just interested to hear what your thoughts are on this one!


Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #9 on: 07 Aug 2005, 19:18 »
OMG, a naked cat!!!11  :o
Well, I think its eyes are too big, but as so big cat eyes really exist, it doesn't matter.
Looks very nice :)

Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #10 on: 07 Aug 2005, 19:56 »
This one isn't bad, but is not the same style as the first one.  It just looks like one of the many "self taught" rustic oils that have a fairly large following.  I don't care for that style myself so I can't say much beyond that.

Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #11 on: 07 Aug 2005, 23:46 »
Actually this reminds me much more of Emil Nolde than El Greco. The nude in particular looks like some of his New Guineau paintings (only pinker :)). Good stuff.

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Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #12 on: 09 Aug 2005, 01:39 »
After a brief glance I would say that the first one strikes me as artistically interesting (albeit not technically skillful or even nearly anatomically correct) while the second one is just horrible. Sorry!

But again, the nude has a lot of artistic value in my eyes. I can easily see it on a living room wall somewhere.
Toss the cat in the bin, though :)

Generally, I would recommend you to start from scratch when it comes to oil/acrylics painting, learn the basic anatomy, colour usage, light/shading etc.
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Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #13 on: 09 Aug 2005, 02:58 »
I think the cat is the better of the two, but like you said Andail, color theroy.



Just some quick, yet very leaneant, color "theroy" changes, light sources, etc.

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Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #14 on: 09 Aug 2005, 13:27 »
What's wrong with the cat is that it's a picture. To me it doesn't come out as a cat, it comes out as a picture, and I assume you didn't want to draw a picture, you wanted to draw a cat... It's hard to explain, hope you get the point. I might ask if there's a cats in the picture or a picture of a cat in the picture?

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Re: Paintings (some nudity)
« Reply #15 on: 09 Aug 2005, 13:52 »
I like the cat much more, maybe because it doesn't have a penis that hangs so low....  ;)

No really, I think it's a big improvement, though the cat looks a bit....cruel, I think, creepy.
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Re: Paintings (some nudity) - 3rd painting is up!
« Reply #16 on: 09 Aug 2005, 22:09 »
Thanks for the comments, everyone! Below I've picked out some to reply to. Also, a new painting has been stuck to the end of this post.

Actually this reminds me much more of Emil Nolde than El Greco. The nude in particular looks like some of his New Guineau paintings (only pinker :)). Good stuff.

After doing a quick google on El Greco, I could find quite a few sites, but they were somewhat garbled. Do you perhaps have some online examples of his New Guineau paintings? I'm curious now. :)

After a brief glance I would say that the first one strikes me as artistically interesting (albeit not technically skillful or even nearly anatomically correct) while the second one is just horrible. Sorry!

But again, the nude has a lot of artistic value in my eyes. I can easily see it on a living room wall somewhere.
Toss the cat in the bin, though :)

Generally, I would recommend you to start from scratch when it comes to oil/acrylics painting, learn the basic anatomy, colour usage, light/shading etc.

Poor cat... throwing it in the bin like that! ;) But yes, I can easily why it should end up there. To my eyes it's quite a mess as well. As Tuomas mentioned later on, it's more a picture with a cat in it than it is a cat.

I also got myself 3 books on acrylic paintings. So hopefully my work will improve with time :)

Thanks for the honest crit, btw.

I think the cat is the better of the two, but like you said Andail, color theroy.

Just some quick, yet very leaneant, color "theroy" changes, light sources, etc.

And it improves a lot! Gives it something of an atmosphere... I'm thinking of "correcting" this picture one of these days... I'll also shrink down the ears a LOT, since that is also one of the glaring anatomical errors in this cat. I also think toning down several of the colours should work pretty well for this picture too?

I like the cat much more, maybe because it doesn't have a penis that hangs so low.... ;)

No really, I think it's a big improvement, though the cat looks a bit....cruel, I think, creepy.

It's definitely creepy. I think it has to do with the eyes being rather big and the ears being rather far too big... and too close together. Well, like I said, I might change it. :)

-----

And now, the next painting! Just finished it (paint's still wet in places). I'll try and get a better picture of it tomorrow... right now if I use flash photography, it looks really, really bad and the colours don't match. So, from a somewhat skewed perspective I present to you:



"Dude, where's my swimshort."

Re: Paintings (some nudity) - 3rd painting is up!
« Reply #17 on: 09 Aug 2005, 22:21 »
You're improving. Give the skin some darker shadows and brighter highlights, as well as giving the hair more values. The clouds seem to stop at the figure, try making them go "though" the figure, that way they don't look out of place.

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Re: Paintings (some nudity) - 3rd painting is up!
« Reply #18 on: 10 Aug 2005, 03:16 »
YOu are improving, definitely. Looks like you've studied some anatomy. Agreed with evil, the outline of the figure in the clouds looks mashed near his body.. Looks like you erased tons on the sketch.
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Re: Paintings (some nudity) - 3rd painting is up!
« Reply #19 on: 10 Aug 2005, 07:47 »
Actually this reminds me much more of Emil Nolde than El Greco. The nude in particular looks like some of his New Guineau paintings (only pinker :)).

After doing a quick google on El Greco, I could find quite a few sites, but they were somewhat garbled. Do you perhaps have some online examples of his New Guineau paintings? I'm curious now.

No, I meant Danish/German Expressionist painter Emil Nolde's New Guineau paintings - as far as I know El Greco never went there :) Here's some of the Emil Nolde paintings from the net that I found most reminiscent of your nude. A good way to find paintings is to search google's image-listing for the artists name.

Edit: Image replaced by link to image for size reasons.
http://www.paletaworld.org/dbimages/1578_1.jpg
At the Cafe (1911)


Beach (1930)


Dance Around the Golden Calf (1910)