Kerioak's Paintings. Critiques always welcome

This was supposed to be a flat field of wild flowers, mostly daisies with a treeline and sunrise from one of my photos, but sort of evolved into what you see here with the hills and water and flower meadow (much reduced in size and quality).   I have added two photos to this post and would love to know which you prefer - and why, and if you don't like them it would also be interesting to know as I am still learning so helpful critiques would be very welcome.

I made the (possible) mistake of using the largest canvas as if I liked it was going to print out on A3; but kept having to wait for the painting to catch up so it has been created over three days, as I went off and did something else while it was working.

I like The seond one with the daisy in foreground.  It adds interest and brings your eye into the picture. 

Thank you Betty, I might have to work on the dasies bit, they look a bit tatty at the moment

I thought I would have a go with the pastels yesterday (and today).  Traced the main outline of the horse from one of my photos (which is a first as I usually do freehand) and used it as reference for the tones. The background came from imagination.

These are delightful paintings! I especially like the one with the daiseys in the foreground. The thing I find perhaps a bit missing, is a bit of deep shadow in the undergrowth at their bases here and there. Some place for the critters to hide that beckons us forward with their mysteries. ;-)

In the image with the horse, after a genuine appreciation of the magnificence of animal and ocean, I am struck by two things, first, the position of the horse seems to suggest the animal has chosen to leap over some object. This makes me wish for an interesting log of driftwood or barnacle encrusted rock to bring gravity and purpose to that leap! Tally-HO!  The second is a thought or two about light. With no shadow being cast on the sand below the horse, I must assume the sun is located in such a position, that the shadow is merely out of view. The positions suggested by that aren't supported by the even lighting on the horse and ocean. The result is an ambiguity that tends to flatten the image. 

I don't want to get too wordy and such. If you are curious to hear more ideas about either image, hit me up and we can chat. Looking very good Kerioak! I hope to see more!

Thank you David, this is exactly the sort of critique I need, I will have another go at these and see if I can incorporate some of your suggestions

Have added something for the horse to jump over but not totally happy with it yet

Nice Kerioak! See how that gives purpose to the posture?

As far as being totally happy with an image, I wish for us all to experience that from time to time. However that little grudge we hold to an image, that undefined itch, is the kind of thing that drives us to improve! It is for each artist to decide when to abandon an image and put new ideas and observations into a new image or keep working with an image to improve it. I would note that if you want the fun of seeing your own path of improvement made visible, it can be a good choice to set an image you are not quite happy with on the finished pile. They become signposts on the path of your artistic journey, showing where you've been and how far you've come. :-)

I will offer a thought about the driftwood. This might be a place to try your hand at foreshortening on that log. As depicted, it appears almost to run in paralell to the horse's path and for my eyes it seems closer to the ocean than the horse for much of it's length. I would propose sticking one end of the log in the ocean and have the other end come right off the bottom edge of the painting. NOTE: I am happy and willing to draw some lines to stimulate your understanding and help imagine the things I'm talking about. I ONLY do that with permission however. Let me know. :-)

Only you can decide if you feel like continuing or moving on. Either way this is the kind of work that get's you further toward understanding. You have a good many solid things going on here. I really love that you cared enough to put in the pebbles. :-)

Yes please David.   I only started (physical) painting after I purchased the original Rebelle in about 2015-16 and thought I would try acrylics as well as the digital and then last year someone gave me some pastels for my birthday which proved expensive as I liked them and so bought more.  I did not do any more digital until this latest version in May so I am still new to art and have a lot to learn about drawing and painting.  I think my photography and editing that has probably helped a bit.   I did have a lot of problems getting the angle of the log

I have spent most of the last few days creating my first portrait painting - does anyone recognise who it is supposed to be :-) (probably more likely to be UK members than elsewhere)

I have put some of my work in the gallery but this one was more of an experiment.   Using "permanent brush" added two or three blobs of colour and then used the "Clean brush" to try and create the flowers and leaves by merging colours.  Similar to the technique used in acrylics when loading a brush with two or three colours to paint the so called, one stroke flowers.

I was trying to work  out how best to use the pen to get thin and thick lines in one stroke and changing direction but found it difficult, (using none, tragectory, pen tilt and pen direction).  Had to change brush size between stroke to get the sizes I wanted.