Sunday, July 13, 2008

home


I really wanted to make a piece about my home town, and this pretty much captures that feeling of suburbia. I'm still not sure if I'm done--any critique is appreciated!

I reloaded a new image that doesn't have the levels so high so that you can see some of the variation I put into the leaves (I guess I could still use some more). I hope the colors don't look too washed out!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering if maybe instead of using black as a shadow (which has a bit of a foreboding feel) you use a cool color in a low value like violet or navy. Then the whole piece is very colorful, but you have believable. Unless you wanted the piece to be like Caravaggio's :D

Nilah said...

Beautiful! I think I'm with Reed on the shadow color, though for me it's more an issue of clarity. I feel thrown off by how the foreground is so black and how the shapes blend into one another. Maybe a bit of very soft backlighting on the bushes and some of the leaves?

Betsy Bauer said...

I think the black has something to do with the internet resolution that I saved... I always really up the levels before uploading because I feel like Firefox really washes my images out. I'll try reloading the image to see if it's any better. Thank you!!

Richie Blitz said...

sweeet! great job, love that tree.

Stevie said...

Looks great Betsy, I like the direction this is going in. Maybe you can still cascade some light from the source in between the houses on the right, so that we still get the impression that its consistent, since you were going for a feeling of suburbia. Now, I'm getting a feeling of a slightly dark suburbia and I'm picturing a kid standing in that intense black shadow begging for help haha, but maybe your story was geared toward something intense like that. Or, you can also play around with the cast shadows of the leaves, possibly allowing a cool blue light or a dark warm orange light to come directing from the lower right giving a sense of balance to the high saturated warm light from the sun(set-rise).

I really like it though! I love the sense of depth and the contrasting light from a different angle. I liked those houses you drew a month or so back, (the designed ones) It would be interesting if you could incorporate that into this piece! I think those houses could provide interesting shadows! Anyways, everything looks great!

Liron Topaz said...

It has a lot of nice feeling to it, very warm. My one complain is the really bright wall on the houses on the right. They are in shadow, and their right wall is really lit and gets a lot of attention. I would tone that down, especially between them. I really like the transition on the ground from light to shadow. It seems to have a warm color in it which i dig. Good Job

O C A S I O said...

I don't know about this one Betsy, I feel like the houses are too generic. Even if your neighborhood is like that, I would try to accentuate the things about your hometown that make it unique and quirky - something that would give me some "insight" into your world. I think you did a good job at that in an older post. Right now, the piece isn't captivating my interest the way your artwork normally does.

Charles Valsechi said...

Very nice piece. The darkness does take a bit away from the overall image. Also, a friendly neighborhood like this during the day, and no kids or animals? Just seems like the world is missing life?