I wanted to tackle this image from our
Virtual Sketchwalk group on FaceBook.

This is a lesson in positive critique…

I want to paint the light.
I’m a novice.
Nothing wrong with being a novice…

But dang how to paint this light?

Oh gads, NOOOOOO, this did not work…
Not even for the low expectations of this novice!
I have a red ghost tree in front of the haunted mansion!

1. Okay, the windows are too dark, that is making it odd.
2. The bloody red transparent tree doesn’t work.
3. I need to add more trees in the foreground (even though there weren’t more).
4. The trees on the horizon are fine.
5. The lawn would’ve been okay but I was giving up at that point, still, not bad.

Someone suggested I put some linework in to “save” it, and it helped.

But the whole point of the image was to try to paint the light.

This is my finished piece.
I want to move on, but still my critique:

1. The balance between window and building walls is better.
2. The red tree is soooo much better, but everything is still very solid.
3. I liked my distant trees better in the last image.
4. I like the sky, shows movement and possible clouds.
5. Shadow way too dark.
6. The lawn area is about the same, so okay, neutral.
7. And I did better with the light streaming in but still, no cigar… I still don’t like it.

Sometimes, one has to move on.
If this were an image of one of our cats or something/someone I loved I might keep at it,
but this is a group I play in and so I am going to let go of this one and go to the next!

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