first post, first painting

[Sadclown]

Hi all,

I just got here and I thought I'd post something and hopefully get a little feedback.

BTW this is my first ever painting so don't be TOO harsh, but I definitely would like some constructive criticism. Thanks all!

http://www.imgmag.com/images/sadclown/candle.jpg

And this is the ref pic used...

http://www.imgmag.com/images/sadclown/candle-flame-1-AJHD.jpg

[Avetice]

You picted the perfect thing for your first painting, you didn't try something too complex. You chose something with very basic shapes, so kudos to you :D

I just made a post on a different thread ....right here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1776

take a look at the very bottom where I made my post. Use what I explained there with your painting as well. Using those lines will help quite a bit. It's all about angles. I'm no master at this technique yet hehe but it is very helpful for observational drawing.

...I can't really help you with color except to say it looks like you did a little bit of massing together the colors at first. Anyway another suggestion would be to take that picture in photoshop and put it in greyscale and keep trying to copy the values. You will start to see which colors have lower values than others.
you did very well for a first painting :)

[Sadclown]

Thanks alot for the reply Avatice. That was a really good idea about the angles. You're right that that is an area where I definitely need to improve. Actually I need to improve in all areas. :)

The color thing is really hard for me because I'm so used to doing grayscale line drawings. This painting thing is a whole different animal. But I'll keep your suggestions in mind and I'll definitely keep practicing! :)