So, I'm one of those oddballs that really, really loves oil paint. I used to do a lot of ink drawings and photoshop with em', but lately I'm focusing  a hell of a lot more on oil paintings, mainly because they actually mean something to me, and I've been able to vent my emotions a lot better.
So, here's some of my stuff. The top three are from the past weekend when I was in a really ->-bleeped-<-ed up frame of mind.


'Wearing the Inside Out' (my absolute favorite)


'Can I Use Your Phone?'


'Drag Me Down'


'Holyman'


'Veda's Revenge on the Angelboy'


'Son of the Morning' (My least favorite)


'The Wingless' (inspired by a Joel Peter Whitkin photo)


'Mr.Butcher'

Any and all criticism is welcome and wanted.

I have always found it difficult to actually 'critique' art so I cannot offer much in that sense. I wouldn't even know how to critique I don't think. I will say that I think these are awesome and you are very talented. I like every one of them and they most certainly convey a great deal of emotion to me. I can actually relate to these paintings. Thank you for posting these and letting me into your heart and mind. =)

Thanks man ^^
I'm glad someone else can find something to relate to in em', that itself is a huge compliment.

You have talent. It looks pretty angsty stuff though. Does painting make you feel better?

Lol...angsty...sorry. I use that word entirely too much.
Usually, yeah. It's why they look so weird/ragey, I don't like planning my paintings out too much, I'd rather just go for the canvas when the mood hits and see what comes out.

There are great! I love "drag me down" the most because it shows so much rawness and vulnerability behind the raging- it seems much more complex than the simply "angst."  You also used the medium to your advantage- I see a lot of mineral spirit/thinner dripping, and it really contributes to the piece!

Overall, it wins because it utilizes more of the painting variables- thoughtful color, thoughtful form, and thoughtful material.  If you think a piece is not successful, ask yourself if you've used color and shadow well.  Ask yourself if you've used the space creatively (how do the forms interact with the edges of the canvas?) Ask yourself if you've used the materials purposefully.

I like "can I use your phone" mostly because of the creative title (not to diminish the actual artwork, of course!), it implies a dark humour that offsets the depressiveness the figure displays.

Oil is a wonderful medium because it is so maleable.  Really great for expressive painting, like you do. (If you have any technical questions about the medium, feel free to send me a message!) Make sure your workspace is properly ventilated! Hydrocarbons can be a killer!  Pay attention to "fat over lean"- more diluted paint goes in the undercoats and less on top, or the paint will crack over time!

The only critique I have is the use of black and white.  This is a very academic perception- if you have an opportunity to take a beginner's painting or color theory course, you'll learn the evils of black and white.  Try to make a painting without out-of-the-tube black or white and you'll see how rich your colors can become!  My standard "black" is a mix of ultramarine blue and burnt umber, but another popular one is a dark, non-translucent green and dark red. (You may be gawking at me right now.  Maybe thinking that black and white are one of the three colors you use.  I understand.  But if you're ready, try a few without them.  If you hate it, go back!)

I think "son of the mourning" is my least favorite as well.  This is because it comes off as flat because of the black outlines on the figure.  In comparison to "Wearing the Inside out", in which you've built form with shadow, it looks much less rich.

I'd encourage you to study a little extra anatomy- grab a book from the library (Or, if you have the means to buy, purchase Sarah Simblet's "Anatomy for the Artist").  I think that, along with a little color theory, can really amplify the skill and impact of your work.  The anatomy will give you opportunity to use form and shadow at a more advanced level.

I hope my critique was respectful and acceptable.  I hope you continue to paint and share the paintings with us.

How big do you work?  These would be really powerful at a large scale, but also powerful at a tiny one!  Changing scale would be a fun challenge as well!  What stage are you at?  Are you going to/planning to go to art school or study painting?

I think your pictures are good and express deep emotion.

I am not a critic. There are allot of really great artists with interesting work. All kinds of work. Perhaps yours are great.

They are definitely interesting, if not a bit scary.

Thank you for sharing these. I think sharing is difficult. Thank you for being brave.

Hugs.
Patty

Ya, i dont know much about art, but i really enjoy going to art museums and looking at art. To me, these pictures are great, and you definitely have talent. They made me feel something, cant quite pinpoint it, but definitely something.

They're really good and expressive! I especially like
"Wearing the inside out" and "The Wingless".

I find art to be a great way to express yourself, its a very emotive and relieving thing to do.

I was going to post a picture I drew, but Im just so crap with technology, I dont actually know how!

Quote from: Make_It_Good on January 26, 2011, 08:16:13 AM
They're really good and expressive! I especially like
"Wearing the inside out" and "The Wingless".

I find art to be a great way to express yourself, its a very emotive and relieving thing to do.

I was going to post a picture I drew, but Im just so crap with technology, I dont actually know how!

If you don't have a printer with a scanner, ask a friend to scan the picture for you and email it to you. Or you can take a photo of it, if it is too large, and upload the photo the same way you uploaded your avatar. If you upload it to Photobucket you can get the img code and paste in here as a response and your picture will be here. (First click the icon under the "B" up above, then paste your img code in. )

Love to see your picture too.
Hugs.
Patty

They remind me of William Blake paintings.

This is one drawing I did, it is just chalk on black paper.
I did it in college (and was upset to have my grade revealed to me as a U!) Im proud of this anyway.
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And this drawing I did for a friend of his motorbike as a thankyou for letting me live with him for awhile.
[/img]

Hopefully the uploading of the pics has worked. (Im crap with computers, so thankyou Mrs Erocse!)


Kyle

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PM
There are great! I love "drag me down" the most because it shows so much rawness and vulnerability behind the raging- it seems much more complex than the simply "angst."  You also used the medium to your advantage- I see a lot of mineral spirit/thinner dripping, and it really contributes to the piece!

Overall, it wins because it utilizes more of the painting variables- thoughtful color, thoughtful form, and thoughtful material.  If you think a piece is not successful, ask yourself if you've used color and shadow well.  Ask yourself if you've used the space creatively (how do the forms interact with the edges of the canvas?) Ask yourself if you've used the materials purposefully.
[/quote] *beams* I try, well kind of. With these, I don't put any thought to it really, the overly aggressive paintings are all things I did to let out something that was eating at me, so in a way it's just luck that they aren't total ->-bleeped-<-.

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PM
I like "can I use your phone" mostly because of the creative title (not to diminish the actual artwork, of course!), it implies a dark humour that offsets the depressiveness the figure displays.

What'd you think it was based on? It's actually a personal interpretation of a Black Eyed Kid, hence the name (google it sometime, it's kind of an urban legend type thing)

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PMOil is a wonderful medium because it is so maleable.  Really great for expressive painting, like you do. (If you have any technical questions about the medium, feel free to send me a message!) Make sure your workspace is properly ventilated! Hydrocarbons can be a killer!  Pay attention to "fat over lean"- more diluted paint goes in the undercoats and less on top, or the paint will crack over time!

God, yes it is. I absolutely love it, hate acrylic with a passion. I'll definitely PM you, I've got a couple questions about oil actually.

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PMThe only critique I have is the use of black and white.  This is a very academic perception- if you have an opportunity to take a beginner's painting or color theory course, you'll learn the evils of black and white.  Try to make a painting without out-of-the-tube black or white and you'll see how rich your colors can become!  My standard "black" is a mix of ultramarine blue and burnt umber, but another popular one is a dark, non-translucent green and dark red. (You may be gawking at me right now.  Maybe thinking that black and white are one of the three colors you use.  I understand.  But if you're ready, try a few without them.  If you hate it, go back!)

Never heard of green and red, but I used the blue and umber a lot when I was doing paintings of Eastern State Penitentiary. I use the black and white in these because I like that garish, over-contrasted look for em'. When I'm doing something with thought or a bit of planning in it, I love the umber/ultramarine mix though, I'm guilty of sticking a little sap green in it too though for 'murky' looking shadows.

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PMI think "son of the mourning" is my least favorite as well.  This is because it comes off as flat because of the black outlines on the figure.  In comparison to "Wearing the Inside out", in which you've built form with shadow, it looks much less rich.

Yeah, I honestly hate that one. What happened with it was I was painting with awful lighting, tried to make a greyish crimson and it turned pink. And it was all downhill from there.

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PM
I'd encourage you to study a little extra anatomy- grab a book from the library (Or, if you have the means to buy, purchase Sarah Simblet's "Anatomy for the Artist").  I think that, along with a little color theory, can really amplify the skill and impact of your work.  The anatomy will give you opportunity to use form and shadow at a more advanced level.

Oh, yeah. Without a doubt, anatomy is my absolute biggest flaw. Again, on stuff like "Wearing the Inside Out", I want it to look angular and malformed, I want it to look like a defect. I've never even tried for any kind of realism, at least not in my paintings, so I don't stress about it a lot, but with my drawings I always feel like I'm funking up the anatomy to hell and back. When I've got the money, I plan on buying a couple more anatomy/medical books for that.

Quote from: Fuji on January 18, 2011, 10:12:01 PM
I hope my critique was respectful and acceptable.  I hope you continue to paint and share the paintings with us.

How big do you work?  These would be really powerful at a large scale, but also powerful at a tiny one!  Changing scale would be a fun challenge as well!  What stage are you at?  Are you going to/planning to go to art school or study painting?

Oh yeah, I absolutely love when someone's willing to actually delve into my stuff and tell me what's good and what I could be doing better.
Honestly, I work as big as possible. Most of those are 11X16 because that's all I had, I did one recently that's 22X28, and one of my favorites is 40X40 on a huge industrial ceiling tile. I was in college for studio arts for three years until I graduated, took art courses throughout all of highschool.

Painters unite!  Although I'm personally not fond of oils.  They dry so slowly and it's frustrating for me... I'm an acrylics guy.

You've got a good sense of form.  Some of these, particularly the wingless one, are shaded in ways where you can really see the shape and almost three dimensionality of the subject.  I'm sorry if that doesn't make sense, I just woke up.

But anyway, kudos.

Nah that makes perfect sense man.
Don't feel bad, I've always been the odd one out when it comes to oil, lol. In the past week or so I've been getting back into watercolors a bit, mainly because I've got no more canvas, but oil will always be my absolute favorite. Ironically, one of my biggest issues with acrylics are one of the reasons people like them better, the whole faster drying and whatnot. I love going back and working on a semi-dry oil painting a few days later.

hello, just joined this forum and found this section

your paintings are great, full of expression, I love using oil paint, its such a great medium, it can applied with great force and reworked endlessly, or applied with the greatest gentleness and lightness of touch (I use it in both ways), lots of other painters I know prefer acryilc and do amazing things with it, but for me Il always be a oil painter

Thankya kindly ^_^
I can't figure out why anyone likes acrylic better other than the fast-drying-ness of it. I flat out suck with acrylic.
You're totally right though, oil is amazingly versatile, and for some weird reason I just love the smell of it too. And the texture. And how shiny it is.
I didn't get much sleep so I'm going off on tangents everywhere, sorry....

I like the colors you use, as well as the expression. I reached a point several years ago where I had no choice but to paint. It helped a LOT! I needed to feel balanced, even if it was just temporary.

btw, hope you don't mind me sharing one of mine that I painted while depressed.

"Depression's Mirror" Acrylic and Oil


BTW, I love acrylics because I use a lot of water with them. And I sometimes use oil to brighten them up a bit.

Holy crap, that color is amazing, especially with acrylic! It doesn't look flat at all, I love the different depths of red you've got going on in it. Do you have more of them, or have em up anywhere?