During the Adirondack Plein Air Festival I recently participated in, I met many kind and wonderful artists, both local and out-of-state. One such was Vlad Duchev, a Ukrainian-born and trained artist who has been living in the States and operates a YouTube channel, Open Studio D (which I highly recommend. Very informative.). I had seen his videos before and really appreciate his generosity in sharing free knowledge. So of course, I had to ask for his feedback, because when else am I going to have such an opportunity? Especially when he sought me out at the final show, exasperated because he had circled the venue twice looking for my paintings (what does that say about my spot? about my work?!?). I thought I’d share his feedback as a learning experience for all of us; maybe you have some of the same problems!

Actually, I had gotten some feedback from him already, during the Quick Draw event when he surprised me by appearing from behind with a camera. For the two hours we artists had to create a piece, I had chosen a backlight building casting interesting shadows on the pavement. Apart from the shadows, the other striking point of the scene was the building’s windows, which were reflecting brightly the morning sun hitting the building next to me.

Lurking in a parking lot — my favorite pastime! 

I was probably three-quarters of the way through the piece, when he found me. Initial noises of approval had me puffing up. But then he suggested that I need to watch my values. Apparently, the human eye can only see correct value for about 15 minutes, after which it adjusts and sees what it wants to. Thus, I should remember to walk away every 15 minutes or so to let my eyes readjust and be refreshed (which I did not/do not do).

With his fresh eyes, he was able to see that the areas in shadow I had painted were much too light and suggested darkening them, but without overworking it (!!! He reiterated that many times.). Darkening the shadows, especially up toward the top of the painting, would make the lights in the foreground, and subsequently the shadows cast from the banisters, pop more. That made me notice that I had also lightened the blue of the building on the right considerably.

He also shared a tactical tip: the jurying of the Quick Draw pieces is in full sun, which I had forgotten since I came to view the show in 2018, and so the colors would be even lighter and brighter. So technically, if I wanted to present a better piece solely for judgement in the sun, I should darken things even more. But I didn’t care about that so much, since that would mean the painting would be extra dark when I took it inside.

Ready for judging outside (left) and hanging in the display hall (right).
The highlights in the top right pop a lot more when the painting is inside.

On this next painting, he pointed out that the darkest darks and lightest lights could be connected to create a triangle that would lead the eye to the bright focal point in the back. Now I'm seeing triangles everywhere! And he suggested I add more yellow to the ferns in the foreground, which would make them come forward in space since yellow drops off first  

He also cautioned against flat paintings, such as this street scene. I think my values are off, so the image doesn't have that sense of foreground and distance. 

My values are too close together. The street in the distance can be lighter, the blue building can be darker — it's all wrong!