Oil on canvas from still life

Oil painting by Carmen, Drawing Academy student

This is my first painting in oil.
Thank you!

---

Dear Carmen,

Thank you very much for your wonderful oil painting, what a beautiful piece.

I’m very much impressed with your still-life especially because this is your first experiment with oil paints. You did it very well.

You have very good “feeling” of colors and values; this is very important for an artist.

There is a couple of things you may want to keep in mind next time you paint a still-life.

1. Composition
You need to decide on the focal point of your composition. The vase in your artwork is perfect, so much so that it destructs attention from the flowers. If this was your intention, you did a perfect job. If you wanted to attract more attention to the flowers, then you could give slightly less space under the vase and a bit bigger margin at the top.

2. Aerial perspective
By using the rules of atmospheric perspective, you could make some elements of your artwork in greater contrast and others more diffused. For example, the shadow that is casted from the vase has a very sharp edge while the flowers are less defined. But it would better to reverse this treatment by diffusing the casted shadow and making flowers in more contrast.

All these things are minor and do not spoil your artwork. Once again, thank you for sharing it.

I wish you all creative success you deserve.

Kind regards,

Vladimir London
Art tutor

To learn human anatomy fast, visit the Anatomy Master Class »

To learn professional drawing techniques,