This piece is a piece where the fish are supposed to melt into the water as if they are half fish, real and half water. This would add a surreal element to these beautiful fish. Unfortunately I feel that the original idea did not translate well in to the piece. I like the movement of the little red fish, but the other two seem a bit static. I kept variety by making the fish of various species and colors, however I feel the balance of the piece brings all the fishes together well. I fell the fish were done well technically, but the background is a bit messy and perhaps lacking a middle ground. AL in all I feel the final product did not match the idea i had in my head, but I still like the fish and the watery designs I super imposed onto them.
On night I awoke with an idea for a painting. I wanted to create jellyfish that were made of thousand of little butterflies. I have tried multiple time now to create this image in my head. This attempt is the closest I have come, however I am missing one important piece. Jellyfish are translucent, not opaque, also butterflies overlap each other and all fly in a similar directions. While I did not capture these important bits I still love this piece. It took hours to draw each little butterfly and even longer to color them in. It was a labor of love and I would be crazy not to appreciate this piece, due to its intricacy alone. I like the balance of this peice and the movement of all the little butterflies. Some negative points are the scratchyness of the upper butterflies due to adding too many layers of pencil.
I think that the first peice shows good harmony and balance because of where the fish are placed. I also think it has good movement cause of the water. Something I also noticed about the water is that it seems to move around the fish and outline them. I think this may be part of the reason why the fish don't seem to be as surreal as you may have liked. Maybe if you make the water look like the water goes through the fish, it might seem a little more surreal. but the fish are very pretty and i like the idea of this peice
ReplyDeleteHey –yo! This is what I’ve got to say:
ReplyDeleteFish water piece:
Ah! Now that you talk about it more I get what you’re saying. The water melting into the fish part is pretty cool! The aqua one and the blue one towards the bottom show that very nicely. As for the larger fish I say they look fine. Sure, they’re static, but I always thought the smaller fish were more agile and the larger ones were a bit on the slow side. (then again that’s debatable when you try and sneak up on them while snorkeling in Hawaii) Not to mention, since they’re so slow, they can probably melt into the water better. As for the red fish, which give great contrast in the piece and display movement, they don’t feel like they’re melting with the water which seems reasonable. (Think someone sitting in a smoky room allowing the smoke to engulf them while someone who might be flailing would push it away)
However, there’s something that I do suggest improving: the water. The streaks make the quality of the work go down. Streaks are something to be avoided. I’m not sure if you were trying to show more movement, with the static fish, but this is more surreal right? You don’t need everything to seem like a picture captured in time. With all the texture and patterns going on I almost feel like a subtle pattern in the water would suit this piece nicely. (As long as it’s the same blue) It would make the piece have great harmony, as well.
Other then that it’s looking great! Hmmm… I wonder id adding salt or bleach to the watery background would do it good… it adds nice circular shapes to a piece and interesting texture. It could solve the water ‘streaks.’ Then again, that might just be me. (Considering I use markers streaks and bleeding lines are what I constantly have to look out for)
Just sayin.
Fluttering jellies:
I like the intensity of the colors in this piece when I saw it in person. However, I feel it didn’t photograph well… for some odd reason… Anyway, yeah! I can feel the movement! Love the content of the piece! I think it’s the variety that makes me enjoy this. You have different shapes, colors, gradients, textures and value all working in unity to the same medium. The movement seems so delicate and rhythm is prominent in the piece due to the repeating shapes and colors. I wouldn’t do anything else to this piece, if I were you.
AH i love the jelly fish one :) i think that's a really cool route to take making the animals or whatevs your going to focus on surreal and out of objects or thing that would not be expected. I think although the jellyfish aren't translucent it still works because of how the background comes through in between the butterflies. my fave part of it is the white creamy ones. The composition of the piece really creates good movement and give a sense of flight and length to the piece. The fish melting into the water is good but i feel like you could make that even more clear as to what is happening. go all out and really push the surrealism. Greta job :)
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea for your concentration is really great and the one for this painting in particular is well thought out. maybe the problem is how the strokes of blue water seem to go around the fish instead of through them. still the fish have great craftsmanship work together really well.
ReplyDeletethe second piece also has a great idea behind it conceptually and I think it came through really well. if there was some way you could spend years on this painting drawing thousands of butterflies then this would probably be the most impressive piece everrrrrrrrr