takin a crack at oil painting..

[los]

Been browsing these threads here for a while, i gotta say I'm very inspired and built some will power to pick up a brush. Seedlings thread was the straw that broke the camels back lol, thanks dude. I'm a 3d monkey by trade, dabbled in sculpture, oil painting is something I've always wanted to do.
tryed to keep it simple, very limited pallete, because i don't know much

[elenaM]

I like it. The cut part, though should be lighter in hue, some pink, creme, lighter than the background.Also the cut part from the apple looks larger than the part missing, possibly because of the color of the cut portion. I think that the safe thing to do is to slice an apple and see the proportions or take a photo of the apple slices and then measure each part with a ruler.If you solve these two problems you will have a great realistic painting.

[los]

I appreciate the critique, soaking up all the advise I could get. I'm not to sure I understood what you ment exactly about the cut part being larger than the part missing.I appreciate the critique though and will mess with the hues as you mentioned.

This here is me second attempt at painting, started this last night, not sure when Ill get a chance at finishing it.

[Dozeren]

Hi -this is my first post here in CA. I've just been painting in computer for about a year, but have worked with oils (or to be precise oiltempera) for about 15 years. It lookes to me that you are on the right track. Looks like you have farely good controll over the paint, and don't mess up the colors to much. Thought I'd give you a tip regarding a simple colorpalette. The colors I've been using the last 5 years are: Pruassian blue, Iron oxide yellow, burnt sienna and white. This is my "nature palette". I also use what I call produced colors like cadmiums and such, but always in small amounts and with great care. Becourse these tends to dirty up the other colors. One produced color I use much is madder lake deep. This is a very transparent color, and gives many nice effects to ex. reds without dirtying. I never use black. Becourse that's a color that dose'nt exist in nature. You mix black by using the red and yellow in the blue, all depending on how varm or cold you want your black. Remember that it's allways the CONTRAST that makes light or dark, warm and cold etc. Here are two examples of this palette. http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn90/dozeren/DSCN4929.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn90/dozeren/UroREDF.jpg
In the long picture I've used the prodused colors only in the clean clear specks of red in the background. The rest is my nature palette. In the other picture I've used The Madder lake deep as a glaze over the red bin witch was first painted with burnt sienna and iron oxide yellow. All the "blacks" are the mix of red and yellow in the pruassian blue.
Hope this can help you along the way.

[los]

great color range with that palette you use, very intersting.Ill give it shot sometime. Thanks for the tips.

[Art_Addict]

Think with the light. In order to represent truthfully what we see it is vital to have an understanding of how light works. Your still life's do not look voluminous or with a sense of sitting in space because your values are not represented in relation to the direction of the light source.
If you squint down or put your paintings in grayscale using PS or some other program. You will notice you have painted very dark values on the side planes of your subjects (fruit in this instance) that are facing the light source.
I think the local color of your apple for example is preventing you from seeing its value in the light areas in relation to the values in your shadow areas.

All points or spots in your subject are in relation to the light source by 2 governing ideas : Proximity and orientation.
Proximity being the distance of that spot from the light source. So that every spot that's further away from the light source will be darker then any spot being closer.
And orientation being the amount of light available to a particular spot because of the curvature or 'plane change' of the surface of your subject.
In other words something that turns away from the light source will gradually become darker and subsequently something that turns towards the light source will gradually become lighter.

Many people have the ingrained idea that a surface that is turning away from them must be rendered darker. In reality the position of the viewer does not change the amount of light that hits the subject. So things become darker or lighter always in relation to the light source, not in relation to the viewer.

Hope this helps a bit.