A Day at the Lake

Hello from ProjectComment!

The first thing that caught my eye here is the warm feel of the pond that you have created with this milky turquoise color, they must feel really mellow in there, great job in depicting the mood!

I like the flow of the bodies, however I feel that her head is slightly too big for her body. The problem is not in the absolute size of her head (hair covers most of it and creates the volume, and gosh, I just love that hair!) but rather in the position of her features: her eye is a bit too close to the ear, too high (her head is tilted away from the viewer and that together with the misplaced eye actually makes the face seem too big) and is not foreshortened enough. It is a minor issue, but these tiny things distinguish a good painting form a great one.

Another issue with the bodies is the light source. From the surroundings and Anna’s shoulder and thigh (very well-shaded, btw!) I assume that light comes from the upper right. However, Zephyr’s chest is shaded pretty much as if the light was coming from the front ignoring the bend of the surface between the frontal and lateral surfaces. That is to say, there should be a shaded area on his ventral part with the darkest shading where his side bends towards his front. His face should be largely shadowed as well. I like how you made a reflection of Anna’s hair color in Zephyr’s hair, but maybe a stronger reflection would be even better at unifying the figures.

I’d also like to talk about the environment. As I have said before, the pond is just awesome. The rocks, however, are a bit simplistic compared to the figures. I would suggest adding some variation to their color (the base color is great, btw) and some shadowed surfaces. The background adds to the serene feel of the scene, however I would argue that the colors are far too saturated and artificial: The green foliage as a nice gradient towards warmer yellow, but it is just too green in general. It needs some blues, browns and purples to balance things out.

Okay, I am done nitpicking here. It has been a great pleasure to see this painting and to comment on it. You have painted a scene in such a way that the viewer would just want to be there (without the company of the characters, probably the pond is too small for three O_O), so I would consider it a success. Keep it up!