Absurdist cartoony pointilism painting; my introductory post

[Saixijn]

I haven't painted in a while. I've been exploring other artistic endeavors with a modicum of failure and/or apathy. Nothing else got under my skin like painting.

I found a bit of success doing very small, moderately realistic paintings of birds. I wanted to be an ornithologist. I do not want to be another blah nature-painter, hawking my wares at a sidewalk sale alongside some cheesy Kinkade knock-offs. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I digress.

In my quest to seek out and develop a personal style, I would like some feedback on one of my favorite pieces. It was an assignment in pointilism, which I did not carry out to its fullest potential, as there is still a lot of white space. Aside from that, what else in it is good or bad? (I don't mean you have to ignore the bad execution, just know that I am aware it's a problem).

Despite its flaws, I love it. Therefore it may be dangerous.

I think I could really run with a style that falls along these lines stylistically as well as color-wise, but I haven't been given enough real crit on it.

So I leave it to the wolves. Please do not be gentle; I am a masochist. ;)

(Apologies for the shiny and angled digital picture, my scanner's on the fritz, and that's honestly the best of the batch :\ ).

[TranslucentSpirit]

I really like the colors that you used. I especially think that using yellow as the outline for the animals was very visually appealing. I like it.

[Seedling]

We aren’t wolves here.

Color: ouch, too saturated! Pointillism is all about optical blending. That means you want to mix in reds and blues and oranges in your greens, not just greens in your greens.

Value – you have a decent range of values, but currently that range is a bit lost beneath the eye-popping colors.

Composition – eh, it’s okay. Not very exciting, but not bad. Just kinda simple.

Story-telling – dogs popping out of the ground. It doesn’t do much for me, personally, but at least it’s clear about what it is saying.

Mark-making – you’re screwed in the mark-making department if you choose the pointillism route, because you are automatically limited to one sort of mark. Of you like optical blending, there are other ways to use it that offer more visual variety (and are therefore less boring.)

About being “yet another bla whatever-artist” – if you be yourself, then you will never be just another blah whatever-artist. Don’t try so hard to not be something, because in the process you are going to end up being something else that you don’t like.

About personal style – become technically competent, push your abilities as far as they will go, make lots of art, and style will be a by-product of your efforts. If you try to force a style it will hamper your efforts at learning.

[Saixijn]

Thanks for the comments! I found some really useful stuff to incorporate in the next iteration of this painting. This one in particular is finished; it was an assignment for a class, and we had to use pointilism. Not my technique of choice, I think. I'm more competent and enjoy using multicolored strokes when blending, so that's probably what I'll go with in the remake.

Originally, the painting was going to be cows on a rangetop (home on the range, lol), but I couldn't make it work within the time constraints for the assignment. I may take a stab at that the second go.

The bright saturated colors are intentional, but I agree there needs to be some quiet spaces.