My Husbands Paintings

[Heathr03]

I apologize for the quality of the photos, After much experimentation, we've come to the conclusion that we're going to have pick up professional quality umbrellas and lights in order to get good photos of the oil paintings.

I've been trying to get Eric to join here, but he thinks this forum is more for crafters and not really the 'fine art' that he does. And he argues he doesn't have time to commit
(i think he's just nervous about netwrking - we've had not so great experiences)
So I thought I'd share his work - because I think it's amazing!

We currently have 4 finished waterfall paintings and one in progress - this is my favorite



Eagles were his thing for a while, we have eagle faces in every medium he works in LOL!

[memoriesinmosaics]

OMG, tell your husband his work is fantastic! He should check out the forums and see what is here. I just know he would do well in selling.
I absolutely love the eagle.

[lisianblue]

oil paintings are difficult to get good pictures of - advise from a really good photographer to me was to
1.  put painting in the shade - and that the sun isn't in front of the painting
2.  make sure the painting is not slanted
3.  make sure the camera is level and parallel to the painting -

These look pretty good - both the paintings and the pics! Really like the waterfall one1

[Heathr03]

Christine and Kris, Thank you - I've passed on the compliments. He is very talented and he loves painting, but he's not very good at accepting compliments.

The colors are washed out on the computer - I have a tripod and a reallygood camera. It's just a matter of getting the right lighting really.

He was thinking a couple daylight bulbs on either side of the painting almost pointing at each other should light it without throwing a glare off the oil paint.

I've been pricing lamps....yeeks...

I'm still nudging to join.. it may take some time

[Jeannie]

I think your husbands paintings are great, he is a real artist,! Love the eagle!

[MakinTheBestOfIt]

Absolutely stunning!  Tell your hubby that craft or fine art is welcome here and we don't bite!  I just spent a great deal of time in art galleries on our vacation (my youngest loves them) and didn't see any I liked as much as the waterfall.

[Chainmaille By MBOI]

Great work stumbled http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/handmadeartistsforum.com/forum/index.php/topic%252C1375.0.html

PS- tell your husband we need more men here to deal with all these wacky women!
runs like hell.........


plus Dragonclaw said he was lonely!

[lisianblue]

yeah I don't know about the lights - they may cause a glare even on the side or shadows - beside glass -I think oil paints are one of the trickiest things to photo - you don't want them in a real dark shady area - but just not where the sun or light will be hitting them - I used to do oil painting and the tips were given to me by a long time photographer.   Might work best with a wide open lens so you are getting as much light as possible for the shot -

not sure what kind of camera you have - but maybe try it on a vivid setting so it isn't washed out - or maybe upping the saturation in an editing program - have to be careful with that tho - sometimes it can do funny things with the colors. just play with it and see how it works.

Yeah - Andrew you better run.............................................. 
lolo

Heather - the top one - is it mostly black and white? or are there other colors in it besides the  light blue waterfall?
Just playing around - took the saturation up to 225 and this is what I javascript:void(0);got. - ok I have to switch servers I guess to load the picture!


well - if something would allow me to upload the picture, it would be nice!

[Heathr03]

Thanks everyone, I've been relaying the messages - He laughed at Andrew's  - He said he's got plenty of experience dealing with 'wacky women' - and then he ducked!

Kris, thanks, I think you probably spent too much effort on the adjustments but I appreciate it-
Our camera - is awesome- a Canon Rebel XS/EOS 1000D - (got a great deal on e-bay) He's been trying to get into the digital photography class at school,
We have a tripod and a wider lense for it - but I don't touch it - those are his toys - i'm just happy he shares the camera!

The painting is mostly black and white, the blue in the water and just a hint of green on the rocks - the impression of moss in the moonlight.

I guess the saturation on your adjustments were too high - I like them, but it's not what the painting looks like! LOL!
Most of his work is very dark, he spent years just doing pen and ink drawings (usually during meetings at work), That's what he's comfortable with,  So expanding into color has been an interesting journey.

[lisianblue]

Yeah - Heather I wasn't sure so I just tweaked it way up - took about 2 minutes to do!   I would love to see how it really looks - it's pretty awesome in the b&w - which is always a good way to tell if you have good values in your colors - that was a requirement in one of my painting classes - we had to take b&w pics of our work to see if we were getting our lights and darks in well - it's a good learning tool - but not if you are wanting to show off a finished painting!  Expanding into color from b&w is always an interesting journey - and very different - contrary to one's thought process - black is rarely added for shadows - that was a hard one for me to get past - professor started forbidding me to even put black out on my palette! lo
I really miss painting - developed a sensitivity to the oil paints - I wake up the next day with my face all puffy and feel like someone hit me in the face!  that's without using paint thinner, and using odorless just means you can't smell when you are getting overloaded on  the fumes so I won't even use that stuff.

you know what - after reading that you got the camera on e-bay I'd have it checked out! 
When I 1st started getting into photography a number of years ago I was using my dad's Olympus SLR camera - that had always been well taken care of - after a couple of classes - the instructor told me I needed to get the camera checked out - it wasn't processing the light correctly, so the exposure was off- (Made a big difference after getting it fixed)
digital cameras - (and that is a good one) are even more touchy - it could have been dropped and messed up a setting - unless all the other pics you take with it seem to come out ok -
great deals on e-bay make me a little leery when it comes to digital cameras and equipment. 
I hope neither of you took offense at me tweaking the photo - just seeing what it might do if the saturation was increased - which as you said I increased too much -
- - may actually have better luck trying it in manual mode - with a really open lens like in an f stop f 5 or lower  - as opposed to f22 - which closes the lens down and lets in less light ( another concept that was hard for me to grasp) - there is so much to learn with the digital cameras - even the white balance can throw things off - for the longest time a lot of my pics were coming out really strange - all because of the way I had the white balance set on my camera - and also the yellowish shadows from my patio!  and after about 600 pics I finally figured out that I really can't shove even the macro lens right on top of the flowers like I could with the film one! 
Hope he keeps playing around with the painting - and trying to get good pics - he does nice work!

[mookiejones]

He's got talent! ( sounds like a reality show). paintings are hard to photograph. even light, no flash, macro setting but still step back, and focus. i take a lot for each painting. then photoshop for crop and color adjustment to get it back to original color, resize, and sometimes do a camera distortion correct to get it rectangular again.

[Heathr03]

He's got talent!

Thanks I know! beaming with pride
He was on vacation last week and I made him take pictures outside. Of everything he's finished in the Last 2 years. I think it was 11 total...finished (there are still at least 5 unfinished)
It was bright but hazy out so no direct light on the paintings, and I had him throw yards of muslin over the portable wall we used in craft shows. Then he went to town with the tripod and maunual settings.
He still needs to finish editing them in photoshop, but he's got some good ones. I told him if he lists them I would promote them because If he doesn't start selling he won't be able to paint any more - I'm running out of wall space!

[lisianblue]

Is he done yet??? editing the pics that is!   I have found putting up something across my patio when I take pics outside - even tho my patio is all shaded that it helps a lot  -I originally used some white cotton material and got a yellow cast - also partly because of the color of the walls - then I tried a white lining material and it seems to work a little better - how did the muslin work out?

[helenapuck]

I really love the eagle.

[JewelrybyNaLa]

Your husband really nails that eagle's face. It's not an easy task to paint animals accurately and beautifully, though many try ... oh yeah, and tell him for me that just because he's so incredibly talented doesn't give him the right to be an art snob.