By Andrea Melione
This article originally appeared in ArtTrader Magazine, Winter 2009 Issue 5
Welcome to the Critique Corner. In this new regular column, reader-submitted art will be critiqued. A critique is not meant to be a negative analysis; rather, a true and proper critique is where a piece of art is evaluated in both its strengths and weaknesses, as perceived by the individual doing the critiquing. An honest critique can be valuable; many of us will ask friends or family members for their opinion, and it is also useful to see artwork created by others critiqued. Also, critiques can give us insight into how others see our art and help us look at it in ways we hadn’t thought of before. In this issue, I’ll be looking at two ATCs submitted by Kati Barrett and giving you some tips to think about when submitting your own work for critique!
First off, here are a few things I think about when I look at a piece of art I am critiquing: Individual style, color scheme, composition, rendering/technical execution, complexity, and the overall immediate impact of the work (in other words, the gestalt: How all of the aforementioned points work together to create the whole). This checklist works pretty well for all types of subject matter and media, from fiber arts, to collage, to drawn work.
Art by Kati Barrett
Let’s begin with “Mellow Light” pictured above. This card is actually rather nice, and is her first attempt at drawing! The drawing of the bird is not an issue at all, as, stylistically, it has a naive folk-art appeal. The colors seem to work well together, and the application of the paint gives the muted feel of late afternoon sun, supporting the “Mellow Light” text. The card could use development in a few areas though, namely in the composition and its depth. The image of the card is very simple, and some extra layers would help to give the card extra dimension.
A border of some kind can give the card a more finished look; because of the theme, one could choose to give the card either a light border (for example, duplicating the white outline of the bird around the edge of the card as well) or a soft application of walnut ink or other darker color around the edges. I usually slide and daub a soft raised ink pad along the edges for this effect.
Also, the values of the bird and background are very similar. To create a little depth and contrast in the card, you could darken the area around the bird; I would suggest using a light, warm brown watercolor, being careful not to go over the white outline. The text is also very small, but is well placed. To make it stand out a little more, outlining in some way could work (for example, by using a gold gel pen).
Art by Kati Barrett
This next card has a lot of potential; the color scheme has already been established (purple, green and neutrals) and the placement of the elements (text, boy, window, skull) is fairly solid. The elements, however, are competing for the eye’s attention, rather than working together to create a cohesive whole. This can be fixed by lessening the dominance of the green window, and bringing the boy visually ‘forward’.
In order to do this, the window needs to be ‘pushed’ into the background. This can be done in a variety of ways:
1) Distress the image using fine sandpaper and apply a light wash of walnut ink or darker-colored distressing ink.
2) Apply gesso mixed with a little brown paint, just to the window area, to make the bright green color appear less saturated, and more subtle; then re-create the brown punchinello ‘circle’ texture over the area, to blend it with the background. The window will still be visible, but it won’t compete with the boy any longer.
3) To bring the boy ‘forward’, outline the figure using metallic pens or any light-colored acrylic paint, or give the figure a ‘shadow’ by painting the area around the outlines a darker color, like a deep purple, or green.
I hope this critique has been helpful to our readers. Thanks Kati, for starting off this column!
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