In Color

[rowyn]

Just for once, I'm going to post a link to a painting that I did and I am not going to say one thing about it. Click on the cut tag to see it. Y'all can tell me what you think without me telling you how I feel about it beforehand. :)


Because I can't be expected to keep my mouth shut too long, I may talk about this piece in a later entry.

Comments

[level-head.livejournal.com]

Oho! I like it. Sythyry has some personality evident here; zie is giving the artist "the eye" and is wryly amused at the doings.

The background is attractive, colorful, interesting, and works well in general. There is one spot that I do not like, and that is the variegated blue "fingers" -- apparently a plant -- draping over the lip of the large bowl in the center background. As we see a sharp focus on Sythyry, and a sligtly less sharp focus on other background elements, my brain is trying very hard to place the blue plant in the far distant background. But, the mechanics of the scene demonstrate that it is not.

So, the eyes are trying to "force" it into focus, to fit in with the other elements, and it does not work. Adding to this is the accident of the blue mass appearing to arc up from Sythyry's ribbon-collar, almost like a large feather or flower decoration being worn. The focus indicates that it is not at the same distance, but the connection wants to be made, somehow. The arcing shadow under the blue suggests that this really is on the statue in the background, but the arrangement looks like a gay decoration.

All the rest of it works very well. Possibilities: sharpen it somewhat, and disconnect it from the collar. Extending the right tip so that a bit was visible below the collar would establish that it did not originate there.

Very nice effect, overall, and good handling of the subject!

===|==============/ Level Head

[rowyn]

Thank you, sir. The look in Sythyry's eye has been my favorite part of this piece since the initial sketch. In fact, at one point I scrapped one version of the entire head to start over again, because I had lost that look.

That the fuzzy blue thingie (I don't know what it is, either) could look like part of Sythyry's outfit had not occured to me, but I see your point. I had concerns, myself, about the difference in the apparent "focus" of the background vs the foreground, and this appears to be a recurrent theme with almost everyone who looks at it. I've attempted to fix this, though by making the whole of the more distant background blurry, rather than by sharpening the blue fuzz. And I moved Sythyry a bit to disconnect the fuzz from zer collar. :) I hope this improves it a bit: http://www.livejournal.com/users/rowyn/85453.html