Friday, July 16, 2010

Mini Canvas Series painting number 10


  'mini canvas' #10 4x4" © 2010 Shayla Perreault Newcomb

Do you know what the most common problems areas are in composition? Frank Webb who wrote the book Strengthen Your Paintings With Dynamic Composition said that it's usually a matter of "bad shapes, scattered or wimpy values, and no size dominance."

Whenever I've felt a piece of mine was lacking magic, it was often one of these problems. He has a handy chart in his book for improving your value fields that I recommend. I've did a touch up on an older painting recently that really made it sizzle. It was a matter of value and it made me think back to his advice. Now that I have a larger palette it was possible to correct the values in that painting. I'm loving naples yellow!

The mini canvas series has been finished for some time and I've been procrastinating about photographing, cropping, sizing and blogging the rest of it. Today I'm loaded the rest of the series to automatically publish. Now I'm off to create. Have a great weekend.

5 comments:

Deborah Carr said...

Your talent and sensitivity just leave me floored.

I simply love your work. Period.

Leslie Avon Miller said...

This is very calm and beautiful. I could enjoy living with this painting. And values - ach. Such a challenge, at least for me. Size dominance - I do strive for that. Aren't we lucky to have the words of wise painters to guide us? Have a good weekend yourself Shayla!

Bridgette Guerzon Mills said...

shayla, i love this painting. it does leave me with a calm, still feeling. The texture is wonderful as well.

Tracy said...

Loving the golden glow in this one, Shayla! There is such a calm beauty to this piece... I really love it! "... wimpy values, and no size dominance." I think I must consider those myself. Going back to previous work is a challenge. Sometimes maybe we need a kick in the butt to stretch ourselves to go further! Our weekend was fantastic, but I didn't get much sketching done... I was too happy taking in the sun, sky and sea and relaxing...LOL! Happy Days, my friend :o) ((HUGS))

Shayla said...

Deborah- Wow, thank you!

Leslie- What ever you're doing is working. Your pieces are magical.

Bridgette-Thank you. I was drawn to your series on trees for the same reason. Your current direction feels joyous and I'm loving that too.

Tracy- sometimes the best weekends are the most "unproductive". Good for you!!