[donlullo]

Hi,

I've just started drawing and painting and I'm going to use some of my photos for reference. I'm wondering which one is good for starting and I want to know what you think of these pictures. Crits + tips are welcome and if you want to see more or want to use it for reference: go ahead.

Should I mention "nudity" for this one?


One of my favorites. I believe this was shot in Cannes (FR). Is also very good in B/W.


Here's a B/W shot on Bali


And my pride and joy: my daughter Robin. This picture shows how fragile she was in her first week.


DoN
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[LMDM] DoNLuLLo

[faeklone]

Personally I'd start with your daughter. She's really lovely, has a great personal attachment, and doesn't have all the pesky details that the other pictures have. SO figuring out how the media works is going to work better in this case, espescially if you're using a monochromatic media as well. There won't be any figuring out what colours are what tone.

AS for your pictures, I like the bottom two. Your daughter is great isolated in a sea of black to pull you into her face. The boat picture is doing a good job of brining our attention to the top triangle in the boat. Plus the use of depth of field so that we see the water, and land behind the boat makes it work well.

To me the top two are kind of interesting, but don't really cut it. YOu isolated the monkey, which is nice, but you isolated him in such a foreign environemtn to us that we tend to ask more questions then the picture gives answers. THe solution to this may be just to crop it some more, so you see more of just the monkey, or even turned the camera 90 degrees and shot it so more of the background could be seen. the leaves are really interesting, and seem to add to the picture to break it up. The only thing is how long the monkey sat there and ate, allowing you to take pictures. Personally I don't like the light you were getting in that picture, but beggars can't be choosers, espescially with wildlife.

The other picture is an interesting buliding, but I feel that it's halfway to being a really interesting picture. I think the picture could go either of two ways. Either isolate the building itself, so that only the building is in the picture, and even give it some kind of one point perspective look to it. The second would be to pull back more and totally situate it in it's environment. In your picture you get a tease of street while the rest is taken up by this really kewl building. Those elements aren't working together, so it's either make them work together, or take away the element that isn't. Alot of great pictures of buildings use it's placement in relation to other buildings to help the read of the picture.

The commments about the top two you can take worth a grain of dust if you want. I'm not much of a photographer, but speaking as a visual artist that is how I see things working better for you.
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[IDrawGirls]

I think most of those photos are a bit problematic. Do you want to learn or create cool looking images?
I assume that you want to learn.
You wrote that you just started ... I think faeklone's reply is great for advanced painters.

Even if you do a very good job it will still be hard to figure out what's going on in some of the images.
What's going on in the 3nd one for example? The angle of the boat doesn't help with the readability.
Obviously faeklone won't agree.
But I think the eye is lead to the tip of the triangle and then there's nothing interesting above it.
I think it would take some very clever changes to the image and good decisions to make the subject work as a painting.
It is good as a photo though. There are just different expectations when it comes to drawings/paintings and photos.

The lighting in the first one is too complex/complicated.
Try to find (or take) photos with a generic lighting situation that you can understand.
Otherwise you'll just copy and not learn as much.

The photo of your daughter is great. But I wouldn't use it as a reference image.
It is anything but forgiving.
At least don't ask for critiques if you use it. Could you be objective?

I think the buiding is the best choice if you use it for drawing or an approach to painting that involves creating lineart first.
For a painterly approach I'd take different photos.

[noxi]

Please don�t paint babies. She looks great and delish, but I think no one�s really interested at looking at baby pics, unless yout a really big anne geddes fan. Ok, every one, don�t take this too seriously. (not a big anne geddes fan...)

Dont also do robots or cars, they�re boring. I�d start with those apes.

[donlullo]

Thanks for the replies.
The monkey was a bit of a lucky shot. I've shot all of these with my digicam, retail (hobby) type and the monkey didnt sit still for long. Nerveous little creatures!
The boat picture captures the moment, but that's because I've been there I guess. That adds to the feeling.
The building has a bit too much detail for starters I'm afraid. It will help me with perspectives because somehow the building really jumps out.
I never thought of the fact that I would not be happy with crits if I paint my own daughter...

Again, thanks guys.

PS. The camera is a Casio QV4000 (Canon lens, same as G2 I believe)
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[LMDM] DoNLuLLo