HOME | DD

zach84 In reply to emilysodders [2013-12-11 06:54:56 +0000 UTC]

I thought it was finished. What could I do to improve the arms and rope?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

zach84 In reply to zach84 [2013-12-11 07:07:50 +0000 UTC]

If you think the colors or tones are off, it is either my crappy photo, my colorblindness, or a combination of the two plus my lack of knowledge of how to make a painting. Let me know.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

emilysodders In reply to zach84 [2013-12-11 22:07:52 +0000 UTC]

Hi Zach- I'm hoping my initial questioning of your work did not come off as attacking you or offensive in any way. I'm not sure whether to read your last comment as humorous sarcasm, or hurt defense or somewhere in between. I'm sure if I knew you personally it would be obvious, but alas, I don't want to project my possibly false interpretation of your reply on the way I respond. So sorry if I did offend you, and if it was just humor, I'm sorry for being so over-analytical and sucking the fun out of it. lol

But to address both comments:

It's certainly not a lack of knowledge on how to make a painting, as I consider you a far superior painter than myself. There's nothing wrong with the composition from what I can judge. Neither are the tones or colors lacking, which is made even more impressive by the fact, that I was previously unaware, of your color blindness. To what degree, I wonder? Do you see any colors at all?

When I look at "The Breaking Point", however errant my conclusion may be, I get this idea that you are trying to visually convey that two parts of a whole( two arms of one body) is fighting itself, and breaking something designed to be very sturdy that ought to remain as one (rope). Not to get political, but to make an analogy: two major political parties battling over one country, dividing it. The breaking point could mean many things, but it looks like whatever it is breaking, the rope, in this case and whatever it symbolizes, is very strong, or why else is there such a struggle? Muscular arms, veins popping, strong fists, rope wrapping around hands and wrists, etc.

I feel like the painting is getting somewhere good until I examine the rope itself. It looks like it's made of marsh mellow. When I think of your other paintings, I suppose I have been conditioned to expect that you would work out every little visibly detail in that rope as you could to show how taught it was up until the breaking point occurred. Our how the rope bites into the flesh with that much stress on it. Your work is meticulous. I don't paint that way, but I do draw that way. So I feel like if this were my drawing, it would be incomplete. And thankfully, others have pointed out the areas in my drawings where I left something unresolved. Some things I could fix, others I couldn't.

So yeah. That's what I meant. Maybe I should have come out and said it. Wasn't trying to play mind games. lol Hope it's useful and if not, filter! Looking forward to seeing more in my watchfeed, as ever!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0