Brian's Comtemplation!
 

Well, I guess I will post another. I too am new to this site and was hoping for some others thoughts on my work.

The most accomplished work makes for the most difficult critique. This is splendidly executed: strongest color and contrast in the area of focus, "primary colors" scheme suited to the young subject, architectural lines either enhancing the focal area or arresting movement off the piece, drawing extremely strong, particularly in handling the challenging foreshortening tasks in the figure. The setting is, well, unusual, but the pose writes a sensitive, amusing story. The cat is a nice touch, a sort of "how you know who your real friends are" accent.

Since you've done all the hard work and I have the luxury of scrutinizing the finished painting, I will mention the one thing I find incongruous about the piece, and that is the dark, richly hued, floor-to-ceiling drapery. It doesn't seem quite to "belong" in this room with the busily-patterned linoleum and the woven throw-rug. And while the adjacent wall gets lighter as it rises, the drapery gets darker, so I'm having a little trouble "seeing" the lighting. I understand the usefulness of the drapery's dark value against the very light potty chair. It would be interesting to see another treatment, such as red pine wainscoting perhaps both behind and beside the boy, with, say, a very faintly suggested pattern in wallpaper above (in blues, perhaps, to preserve the primary-colors scheme), to complete the "frame" begun by the linoleum and rug patterns.

Wonderful display of skill.

Steven

Steven, I appreciate your critiques. The adjacent wall is a sliding glass door the drapery is the curtain to that door. It does kind of get lost and misrepresented in shadow back there. I get to a point in a painting where I leave out information, maybe boredom and enough has been said. If you notice the linoleum pattern near the window is left undone, I just stopped!

Thanks, I look forward to more input!