[Aquanet] October critique

[Gilles Durand]

Dear Fellow Artist,

I agree with previous comments. The painting has a nice loose feeling, with
good colors and value contrast. The composition is quite effective in
conveying a strong sense of action with a pivotal diagonal and a supporting
counter-diagonal. 

As you had the courage to expose your work to our critique I will venture
some suggestions, for whatever they are worth...
To build on Pat's comment and Shanti Marie's suggestion, in order to avoid
the imbalance of colors and the impression of a somewhat compact brown lower
half, the negative space below the bull's head could have been kept a light
color as in the attached example (N.B.:I did not pay attention to the exact
color). This would give interlocking shapes helping light circulate inside
the image, plus, as I see it at least, it would increase the sense of thrust
of the bull. 
Regarding the weight of the image to the left, as mentioned by Dave, which
may be seen as participating in the action dynamics, it is interesting to
see what happens when it is "corrected" by cropping the image. As the
example attached shows, it may lessen the feeling of action a little bit,
but at the same time it makes the subject occupy more of the picture plane,
showcasing the nice negative spaces around the subject.
Finally, my eye was caught by what I see as an exaggerated perspective on
the bull's legs, which I interpret as supporting the idea of movement.
Although it looks effective in doing so, it may have to be considered versus
the impression of power one expects from that sort of animal.
IMHO, of course.

All that being said, I find your painting beautiful as well as a strong
statement, completely in tune with the subject.

Kind regards,

Gilles

-----Original Message-----
From: aquanet-bounces at thedigitalbraintrust.net
[mailto:aquanet-bounces at thedigitalbraintrust.net] On Behalf Of pat davis
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 6:08 PM
Cc: aquanetArt
Subject: [Aquanet] October critique

Dear Anonymous Artist,

First off, many thanks for being brave enough to submit a painting for 
critique. If you're like me, paintings can be very personal and opening 
oneself to critique can sometimes be like appearing naked in front of 
others and having them critique that. (In my case, a potential source of 
nightmares! Adonis, I ain't)

You stated that you wanted to be more free with your watercolour, and in 
this I think you have succeeded admirably. In addition, you have 
achieved good colour unity altho perhaps the colours could be more 
balanced across the piece (Blue dominates in upper left/red and brown, 
in lower right) I also very much like the way you've handled the paint; 
that is, the application is loose and gives a feeling of action and 
flow. Bravo!

Regarding perspective, I know little about bull-fighting, but to me it 
appears that the matador is seen a bit from above while the bull is seen 
from straight on. I'm not sure how much matadors lean in bullfighting, 
so this could be quite accurate and I'm out to lunch... again.

Well done overall!

cheers
pat




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