Painting I did for my art class

[AllHailRain]

I'm an art photography/zoology student at my local junior college and my photo class got cancelled the day before spring registration cancelled, resulting in me being thrown into a 2D painting class. It's a pre-req for a lot of art classes so I didn't mind too much.
Anyway, this is just to let you know that I have no talent in painting and it's not my forte.. so I know there's a lot of colours that don't match up and places where things are off.
The assignment was to paint a picture that appealed to us.

(Some of the background was cropped and the scanner wasn't big enough to fit the salamander's back leg in the tray)
I chose the picture by Wouter Beukema of a Lyciasalamandra billae.

Since this forum is as public as this painting is getting, I didn't really look into how to properly give him credit for taking the original picture.


I'm in no way happy with it as a painting in and of itself.. I am happy with it because it's not where any of my talent lies and I've only been introduced to painting since January.
Anyway, just thought I'd share for kicks and giggles.

 

[Jumpshot724]

Honestly that looks really good, you should be proud. I'm not a painter myself but that looks like something I could easily see hanging up in a zoo's reptile house or an animal art collection. It may not match the picture exactly, but if you didn't show the comparison I'm sure anyone would tell you it was a fantastic job.

be proud of yourself!! Great work!!

 

[AllHailRain]

Aw..Thank you very much! I'm actually proud of it for myself, but my class is filled with people who have been painting for their whole lives so it's hard not to compare. I am much more confident in the darkroom, but I do like the experience of doing something different and gaining appreciation for it.

Thank you so much!!

 

[Bellabelloo]

I think that's a wonderful painting!

 

[lilsoul]

I think it looks great the artist is never 100% happy .Just rember you are allways your worst cretic.

 

[Jan]

It is a visually appealing piece - a little abstract, but quite interesting and nice.

 

[digger]

That is amazing well done you.

 

[Lasher]

You shouldnt be so self critical, you show a remarkable talent for colour use for someone who's not been painting long.
I like it.
IMO the upper right arm and eyes could use some more attention. Eyes and faces generaly form a focal point in paintings of people/animals, it looks like you've done more work on the body(I can appreciate why from the photo your working from, you just need to elaborate a bit - use some really dark reds and browns to enforce the form of the eye ball and snout).
Its a great start... finish it off

 

[Alejandro]

painting

I really like it as is. Congratulations!

 

[AllHailRain]

Thanks everyone so much! I love this forum; everyone is so sweet here and it means a lot.
It's not fully done, but it was done enough for me to turn it in..so I won't get it back to work on it more until after spring break. I just love the original photograph so much that I want to nitpick until I love my painting just as much. It's cool to have something similiar to it, but still be my own art.

Thanks some more!

 

[dane_zu]

very nice, i like how you incorporated the glare on the skin, I cant ever do that when I draw pictures

 

[AllHailRain]

you're the same guy on RZ forums too, right?

Someone said that in critique today, but I didn't really do it purposefully..I kinda got lucky on that one.