Two Pieces of Traditional Art

Along with photography, I also do art. Here's some of my most recent works, one of which is a work in progress.

A killer whale in oil pastels:



Details:
One
Two

An unfinished "self-portrait" painting of the silhouette of my head.



Close up of the books:
Click here

The Whale

I pretty much think it's aweome, and definitely my favorite animal. But, I have a few critical points as well. The nose is a little too pointy for a killer whale. If you look, their mouth is really very straight aligned with their body form and, although they can move their head, the head in this picture is not really moved much...it's just the nose/mouth that is moved. Also I think the water underneath the whale is a little too attached. Of course, when whales jump out of the water some goes with it, but that just looks attached to it or something.

The Self Portrait

It's a lot of fun so far, and I won't critique anything until it is finished.

Hey, thanks! Here's the reference picture for the whale in case you were interested or wanted to compare:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/me ... -whale.jpg

I agree it's definitely not exact or perfect like the photo, and the nose is slightly pointy (it was a pain to draw that. )

You know, I have the same problems with the actual picture. But I think it looks more like a computer generated picture then an actual photograph, do you think?

But, you did a great job copying it now that I know the photo is odd looking as well

It's actually a National Geographic photo that can be found on their website. I agree that it looks very unusual.

Thank you again!

The Whale is quite good and oil pastels was a great choice of media. The self portrait is interesting too so far but the eyes could be more realistic.

Yea I actually saw that picture on there yesterday. I was trying to find another picture of the same kind of angle to prove my point lol. It's really a lot more difficult than you think to get a picture of a killer whale from the front view like this. It's been awhile since I did anything with National Geographic, but from what I remember they have many pictures of this sort that you aren't really sure if it's real or not. It's more of a detail picture than a snapshot, in other words--they want to make a picture to educate you haha. This particular picture just seems weird to me because of several reasons, one major one because I find it unlikely that an animal who's baby weighs as much as an elephant can linger a foot above the water long enough to take a picture like this haha...'gliding' is not a common practice for Orca's.

But anyway, none of this has anything to do with your ability to paint it...I'm just rambling because I find it interesting!

The self portrait was my favorite. You captured everything within you, very nice!