Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Boats by the beach

Hello everyone!
Wish you all a very happy Diwali. I hope you all have a great time.

I completed this painting from a photograph last evening. I am satisfied with it for certain reasons and not so satisfied for others. I particularly dont like the way I have divided the spaces on the canvas. I am thinking about cropping this one a little bit. But I am not sure about which crop would work best. So I created the following digital images from the photograph of the painting. Please take a look and tell me which one you think is the best crop.


Case 1. No cropping


Case 2



Case 3



Case 4



Case 5



Case 6

Please tell me which one you like best and why. I would love to hear the technicalities or emotional responses that are involved here. It will help to know a thing or two about how artists think.
Thank you so much!
P.S. Any other suggestions or criticisms are also most welcome.

10 comments:

Susan Roux said...

Its interesting you write about cropping, because I was drawn to click on your post because I liked the composition of your painting! Now that I see all your cropping versions, the original still remains my favorite.

In all the cropped versions, the intensity of color is lost. Most look washed out. As we paint, each color we choose is in direct response to all the other colors we've used. Remove any part of that painting and you'll need to continue painting it. Personally I think the original version follows basic rules of composition and is not flawed. I find it to be the strongest image.

Prabal said...

I liked the 4th one the best. Just an emotional response. Makes me want to go and sit in that boat.

Rohit Kulkarni said...

first of all, this is very nice work... the original is good as is...

from the cropped versions, I like no.3 best... the horizon appearing at 1/4th level is interesting :)

Crystal Cook said...

I'm going to have to side with Prabal on this one. I like number four the best too. I like that it's an uneven division of space, and that there's room for the eye to travel around the painting.

Sandeep Khedkar said...

I like the original with the skies and atmosphere.

Randall said...

I like Case 6. You do need to get some of the sky but to make it even better a little wider than case 6 adding more of the scene possibly but thats another painting for sure. I'd say for the final crop Case 3, hands down, thats it.

~Kirby

V. Deshmukh said...

Thank you so much everyone for the insightful opinions. It will all surely be of much help.

Carol Blackburn said...

Hello Vinayak, so nice to meet you. Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving your kind comment. Your work is wonderful. I do like the 4th one and would have probably painted it that way myself as the beached boat is more prominent with less of the sand but I would have put the distant boat about 3/4 of the way to the right on the horizon to balance the shoreline. Just my way of looking at it not that it is any better than your wonderful painting is already. Thanks again for visiting my blog.

yasha said...

Hi Vinayak,its a pleasure looking at your work.There is a loose and fresh feel in your paintings.Loved them.

Well, deciding for a better crop here,there is a rule called Third's Rule.You can google it and it really helps you in cropping pictures and paintings.Hope it is helpful.So,if you take that rule into consideration, I think Case 2 is more appropriate.

Indu Jaggi said...

Crop number 4 works for me the best....
the eye travels back from the horizon to the interesting foreground and the subject, making it the focal point as well as the point of interest.