Hi Jeffth
Let me say it is totally up to you what you will want to accept and what not.
I am not an expert in water and I did not finish my water class with oils due to health concerns.
I did not want to remove baby tree but it was easier to try to convey the idea without it. So if you decide to implement anything from it just better/easier repaint the whole painting.
I tried to bring sky color in the water in distant part of the pond. I did not put shore lines. Revision of water triggered revision of the tree values. ( I need to say I am still not quite satisfied with resolution on trees, but you can read further why).
I would try to keep distant lake bigger to avoid those curves and trying to fit them into perspective. So I tried to make horizontal line for the shore.
I assumed there is forest there and against the sunset it would be quite dark at the base, but not black at all.
tops of the trees: I tried to make them lighter a bit to show how sun shines through.
However after struggling I came to conclusion that the yellow of the sky is too open and adjusting distant trees will require more work. And perhaps they will need to be taller for perspective to work better?
In the closest pond I had to kill that blue tint as it did not correspond to the sky colors.
I hope any of this will help.
Wow Sunny! I have to say I'm blown away! Thank you for investing so much in to helping me with my work :D I'd like to retain access to this article for a while, to reference while I paint things in the future. If it's okay with you, can we leave the article up indefinitely?
Regarding your adjustments, I have to say you are completely right (to my eye). The distant shore line looks better with less curvature, and the comment about waterlines being closer in value to the water makes so much sense.
Couple questions:
1. How did you decide to not use any yellow in the far pond? Your choice looks correct, but I know if I were working alone I would not know how to make that decision. From what you say, it sounds like it is because the pond is not THAT far away (to merit mirroring the lightest value), correct? But I'm still stumped on how to decide how closely to mirror the sky color.
2. When you're talking about the distant tree line, when say the yellow of the sky is too open, what does that mean? I like the adjustments you made to the distant trees, and agree with making the base darker.
Your adjustments are quite insightful and I feel like I have already learned a lot. Thank you so much for your investment of time and effort!