I agree that the most difficult part of a painting is the background. Mark it would be great if you created a video that explained (with examples) how to compose backgrounds. These critique videos are a really great idea, please do more.
Adam is really very brave to do this and it’s a great thing that Mark is doing it. A lot of professional painters wouldn’t take the time. Which only means that he cares about teaching. Very encouraging to see this interaction. - I also learned maybe that’s the problem with the painting I’m doing now. I changed the background color cloth of my still life. It makes the edges a lot harder to deal with and judging value.
This is very interesting and informative. I noticed the bear's muzzle as well. I really liked his fur. I have a group of fellow artists who help each other with constructive criticisms. At 72 and painting for at least 60 yr and drawing from the age of1 1/2 I am still learning. I love your methods, they have been very helpful. I was not allowed to go to art school so over the years it has been selective workshops, videos, a multitude of art books. I will be looking for every spot you put on RU-vid. Thank you so much, you are a true friend to all who strive to be better artists.
The painting reflection of the tree is fantastic! Also this is a great subject to make a series of video. Thank you Mark!!!! If you ever come to London please let your fans knows.
LOVE this video. Love your easygoing, yet direct method of critique (you are VERY encouraging, Mark) as well as Adam's lovely work. I learned a lot. Looking forward to another video like this. :)
Adam, enjoyed your work immensely, not much to be critical about, love the fur. I tried it once, a disaster. Mark, CONGRATS on this series, can wait for the video!
I really like the last painting. There is in fact a Grizzly in Alaska, which is quite known because of it's slightly off snout. He has multiple injuries from fights with other males and his facial injuries were one of his first.
Cool series. It seems awkward because it depends what the artist is going for, like clearly this artist has the discipline to achieve his vision. It’s just a matter of what that vision is. I would say the paintings could benefit from less detail, more contrast, natural light and more ‘mood’ but then they would be a different style. I like his bear paintings for what they are. Maybe just explore this world more, put in more risk, bring in more emotion somehow, probably stray away from the photograph more.
I enjoyed this very much - even though I discovered I couldn't see as well as I thought. Thanks so much for this. I appreciate what you refer to as your 'pickiness' because it's a great learning experience for me.
The first painting reminds me of Gustav Klimt. With its juxtaposition between realism and abstraction, the baby and the adult baboon being representative of those two polarities respectively.
I have been watching a lot of your videos lately because a really want to start painting and when i saw the video in which you annouced this series i got very excited. Just letting you know that the video is awsome just like the painting that was criticised
Great video Mark and Adam. The Background can be difficult but it can be easy also just blur to abstract a mountain scene but keep it with as much attention and treatment as the foreground and main subject.
Adam is a brave man. Good work too. I do think he's trying to paint a little looser as Mark's technique teaches but isn't quite there yet b/c it's really hard to paint loose like Mark. A bit more time painting and he'll be there. Very nice paintings.
Great paintings and great series, love them. I suggest you ask the artists to take their reference pictures with them so you have a reference point for a richer criticism.
It is common for beginners to focus all their time on the subject, leaving very little energy or inspiration for the background once the subject has been painted. Due to the disconnect between the subject and the background, the narrative of the painting becomes unbelievable.The apes look like they are in the sun on a foggy day. The third painting is impressive. Keep muddying those colors.
in that case it doesnt matter, the subject is a baby ape on a 3 quarter or half of an adult ape. i hate when people crop trees, animals, portraits and by the way his 1st sentence is "Mark i watched youre stuff" and im german and stuff sounds like looking down at it.
Love the paintings! I feel that the critique of the first painting could have been more helpful and I think you may have missed a few glaring deficiencies. For example in the first painting: First and foremost the contrast of the background and subject is too close in value. There needs to be much more contrast whether it be color, texture or overall darkness values. I think the biggest problem with the painting is that its a hyper realistic rendering of the apes, against what? A concrete wall? This should have a lush green background of some sort. Or maybe some suggestion of savanah plains(?) One other large factor causing it to look flat is that there is no light source or contrast on the apes. You can see there is a light source on the babies face, but thats it. And lastly, the focus of the painting, the babies face, is just about in the very center of the piece. It looks symmetrical in a way that just leaves your eye stuck in that one spot. Everything else on the painting is grey and tan. BRAVO to this guy for picking up painting! He's getting pretty good! Just needs some direction so he can make progress and not be stuck rendering fur only.
Great artists are always their own worst critic. Adam mentioned he had to call it finished and move on, which is really hard to do. Learning to paint is a journey, and an artist should learn something new with each one no matter how long they've been painting. I think he's doing very well for his short time painting. Good job!
"21st century art, has so many ways of building their images. From direct observation, to methods inconceivable before the digital age. To me, the means of generating an image is immaterial. It's the quality that matters..." Robert C. Jackson. His book, Behind The Easel, puts the whole thing into perspective.
Funny, I actually thought the mother bear head was much more realistic, besides the baby and the sky.. tis very realistic from my perspective.. I enjoy the originality of your channel !
His least favourite is probably my favourite. The style and colours give it an antique sort of look, like the neatly painted fur looks fragile and delicate, and the sky looks like lapis lazuli, and the colours are earthy and natural. There's something wholesome and positive about the subject too; the cub and its mother are safe on top of a hill in a world that looks like it's made for them
slop_dosh, Veiwing on video, and not seeing in real life, to me it appeared as though the bears were cut-outs and stuck onto the canvas. Again, my opinion.
Martyna Kaminska practice brushes and brushwork... also use a lot of paint especially if the edge has a highlight. Make sure thinner is not overly present into the paint or it can blur the color into the background
Very good paintings but the last one, I agree with Mark that the face is off. I think for one the expression is not super realistic I think. But really I think it’s the colour of the face that breaks the harmony, but really it breaks the harmony because it’s the focal point so your eye is drawn to something which just doesn’t fit with the rest of the composition. Overall it’s a great piece, but if the face just fit in better it would have been so good
In my opinion this was more of a conversation of an art work than a critic. I will like more critic pointing what can be done to improve the painting, so it will be helpful otherwise is not helpful at all. In the other hand I understand that you did not want to offend the artist but he wen to you to be critic so that he can improve his work, and I don’t think he accomplish that because you was to vague in your opinion.
For me; I can not really see a Painting until its in a Frame. I feel the that The Frame can Make or Break a Painting. Selecting the Proper Frame is 50% of the Work. "The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts. Adam is a very fine Painter, Many Great Master have made some very Poor Works as well as Great Works.
Yes that is what I thought also. I believe Adam should prepare more for the show which he did not in this case so his comment s will improve. I know it is difficult the comment on somebodies work. Adam wants this to be a learning opportunity for us girls i guess so he needs to be critical regardless how difficult that might be for him. And we understand that it is his opinion and we can do whatever we want with it so no need to be shy about it. You don't learn to much from Comments "that is good" and further nothing. Anyway My 2 cts
I totally agree. He was to worry on hurting susceptibility. It was not helpful at all. I really saw a lot to be critic in all the paintings and I am not an professional like Cardel, I wish he will critic more. He could start by asking what the artist was going for in that painting and if he fill it was accomplished and start from there giving advice.
I love your videos and the series, but it's not going to work if you are afraid to hurt peoples feelings. You aren't helping them or us. Having the reference material is obviously important. I look forward to many more videos.
I would never set out to invite hopeful artists to engage in "What's Wrong With My Painting" because invariably the main thing wrong is their entire concept. We don't even need to get into the weeds of things like values, color contrasts, composition, etc... The paintings shown here are just poorly conceived from the outset. What's the point of embarking on such a painting?? I would have to ask what he intends to achieve. It is almost hopeless to suggest the study of great paintings, because these are so far off the mark that it is not very helpful to suggest minor aspects for improvement.
What is the point of painting a photograph if there is the photograph itself? Art must make a reinterpretation of reality, whether through composition, style, technique ... whatever.
Publico Jornas Adam is painting through a photograph to learn not for the end result. I agree though that when you create your own work one should strive to make it one of originality.
"An artist is drawing out the spirit of the subject and character in a way a photo doesn't" - Yes if it were drawn live and not copied from a photography. What I see in the painting is a monkey with his son on his back, just like in the photo. I do not see any spirit coming out of the drawing/painting. For me, in contemporary times, a work of art must be an "open work" (see here the concept of Umberto Eco "Open Work": www.researchgate.net/publication/280730233_Text_and_Meaning_in_Umberto_Eco's_The_Open_Work) And see, for example, the work (paintings) of Edward Hopper. Here is a description of his work "The narrative implied through the figures, objects and settings is never completed. Consequently, the narrative consists of both absence and presence: incomplete information is provided by the artist, while the viewer, filling in the details, creates his or her own narrative". Or see movies like "Stalker" (Andrei Tarkovsky) and "Persona" (Ingmar Bergman)... those is art! - “When you think about art, you have to think about life. If art doesn’t sensitize us to something in the world, clarify our perceptions, make us aware of the decisions we have made, it’s entertainment.” Linda Weintraub
I dont know i personally really dont like his paintings, its very amateurish witch, I would expect, but that still means its nowhere near any good level. The drawing isnt best the perspective leaves a lot to be desired the colors are just plain monochromatic(and not in the good way) and theres just something about the edges.. i hate it
can you paint a half of a banana next? but the 3rd "Reflection" one is really mind blowing and the 4th "bear", find a picture of a bear, if you work from pictures, that shows the full bear somewhere and you have absolutely no problem to sell this, i think, and sign them.
The biggest problem dear Adam Chaplin is that you do not create "volume" and it lacks spatial depth in your paintings. They are so incredibly flat. Except for the nonsense you paint, but that may be a matter of taste, as Mark also says.
