Elinor Stecker-Orel, APSA  

Last Days of Autumn by Elinor Stecker-Orel, APSA

August 2019 - Last Days of Autumn

August 2019 - Elinor Stecker-Orel, APSA

Original

About the Image(s)

How I Did It

I was attracted to the color of the leaves, but not to the tangle of branches or the lack of sky. Using Painter, I added and subtracted areas and then increased the overall saturation in Photoshop.

This round’s discussion is now closed!
11 comments posted

the painting very effectively blocks out the mess & clutter seen in the original.
This is a true modern painting of autumn foliage, both on the ground and on the tree.
What you did to the foreground trunk enhances the image rather than it being perceived as obstructing the leaves as in the original.   Posted: 08/08/2019 08:04:00
 
Thanks, Cyril. Your comments are very encouraging.   Posted: 08/08/2019 19:06:07
Nancy Speaker   Nancy Speaker
Hi Elinor, I find the colors absolutely stunning and the shades of reds, oranges yellows and greens so striking in terms of interest. I too feel that removing some of the branches allowed the tree in the foreground to blend better to the entire image and autumn trees in bloom play a more dramatic focus. To my eye the gray sky appears to be quite dark in relationship to the lovely bright colors and I played around with a different look. Just an idea.   Posted: 08/08/2019 16:19:11
Comment Image
 
Thank you, Nancy, for taking the time to play with my painting. The sky kept bothering me so I tried several shades of blue. But you came up with the right solution. Now it looks like the ground extends way into the distance. I love the difference it makes.   Posted: 08/08/2019 19:04:53
Nancy Speaker   Nancy Speaker
I am glad you like it. I am never sure my visual feedbacks will be received well. I truly love the colors. Just so you know it is not a crop, I removed the sky and just moved a second copy of the image below this layer to fill in the cut sky. It is not correctly done and is really rough, but does give you a different idea to work from.   Posted: 08/11/2019 16:27:01
Cindy Gosselin   Cindy Gosselin
I love the Impressionistic feel of this painting, especially on the ground cover, where now all the distractions are removed. My eyes were quickly drawn to the yellows, oranges, greens and reds of the leaves and ground cover. So, for me, the gray sky both detracted and competed with the rest of the image. Nancy's crop was excellent and now allows you to see the beautiful colors of this fall day. I also originally thought about cropping out the tree on the right; but if you did that, one of the diagonal branches on the big tree would be distracting as it would sit right on the upper right corner of the image. So, I think it was appropriate to leave that tree as part of the composition.   Posted: 08/10/2019 10:16:25
 
Hi, Cindy, and welcome to our group. Thank you for your nice comments on my painting. I experimented with painting out the tree on the right, but I decided by including it and blurring it, it gave the painting a feeling of a bit more depth.   Posted: 08/11/2019 17:07:47
Gerhard Geldenhuys   Gerhard Geldenhuys
As usual you have achieved on what you set out to do.
Well done Elinor. The coloring is beautiful.   Posted: 08/16/2019 03:27:46
 
Thanks. Geerhard. I'm glad you like it.   Posted: 08/16/2019 07:20:08
Pat Centeno   Pat Centeno
I like the unusualness of these colors together: the dark grey of the sky and tree trunks accented by the bright reddish foliage. I feel like something is missing with the little branches painted out of the upper right corner, though. So I have to concur with Nancy that it will look more dynamic with more red leaves in the big blank area at upper right and top--but maybe just leave a touch of that dark grey sky at the top and side as a sort of border area for good measure, instead of filling it all in with red. That's my 2 cents, Elinor.   Posted: 08/21/2019 18:20:07
 
Thanks, Pat. I had trouble with those little branches, so I took the easy way out and removed them. Your 2 cents worth of comments are worth much more than that. Thank you for your careful consideration of my painting.   Posted: 08/21/2019 20:13:23