Wednesday, September 18, 2013


Diego Villegas
watercolor on paper
8.5"x 13"

13 comments:

  1. the brilliant blue and gray splash give this piece a blast of the moment without having to be there. Im now curious what he is reading.

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  2. The figure is represented well both proportionally and in frame. The white negative space doesn't bother me and I in fact think it adds to the piece a lot along with the paint spatters venturing into the white. The media is handled well.

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  3. The background color is a great choice set against your model of blues and grays. The narration of this piece makes me wonder what he's reading.

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  4. I think the most detracting part of this piece is angles and placement. While the proportions of the figure are well rendered, the angles on the door/the paneling draw my eyes away from the figure and really hurt the image. On top of that I feel that the figure is not placed very well in regards to the horizon line (The base of the door) and this makes him appear to be less grounded in the image. This could be fixed by either moving the figure farther away from the base of the door, or by changing the angle that his torso is reclining at.
    I do really like this image though. The narrative is very strong, and I don't think about what he is reading so much as I think about why he is sitting against a door, and why he is only wearing underwear. It makes me think of a child who doesn't want to take a bath, which is enforced by the beautiful blue tones and the literal splashes of color.

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  5. Overall I think this is a really fun piece. I'm loving the color choice and narrative. The turqouise on the floor and splashes of water hint towards a water based narrative. It looks like his novel is coming to life around him. The figure is well rendered in regards body position and lighting. The proportion of head to body could be adjusted a bit. Not sure if you intentionally made the figures head large.

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  6. I think this has good proportions and value range. However there are some parts of his body that I think could have used some more color. Particularly on the hand holding the book and the lower half of the leg (not the leg that is tucked in). These areas feel like they have very little to no color (maybe that is because of the photo, not sure) which doesn't work with the overall nicely painted body. I like the pose and the way it is rendered.

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  7. For one of the first times I disagree with James on a point. The light line work on the door and intersection of the wall and floor are done very well to create depth. I think your use of paint, and what I assume is pen, create a very believable and proportional figure. The only problem I see with the the figure is the nose is too large and I think the skull needs to be slightly elongated. The only other problem I have is some of the lines in the door; the center lines don't seem to have the same vanishing point as the rest of the door.

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  8. really nice and good use of watercolor, you achieved background texture and a good flesh tone. I would have pushed unnatural colors a bit more in the body.

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  9. Awesome painting! I agree with Alise. I feel like that hand and leg could use a little bit more color, because the foot especially, gets washed out by the white space. Love the way the red book stands out against the blues and greys. You have great proportions and skin tone.

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  10. I love this style of watercolor paintings, it reminds me of comic books! I think because of that I feel like the narrative is about superman on his day off, just kicking back reading a book. By adding the door and blue floor the figure is grounded, which is challenging to do. My favorite part on the figure is the chest, I love the curly chest hair, it seems like it just wisps up and it's in the shape of superman's logo.

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  11. you really really nailed the flesh and hair, especially in the figure's torso. A couple people have commented on the size of the figure's head, and whether or not it was intentional. I think, somehow, it works anyways. The painting already has an incredibly playful quality to it, due to the splashes and intense blues and red. I think the slightly enlarged head and the slightly skewed grounding actually help that playfulness and increase the painting's compositional value. isn't that the point of breaking the rules?

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  12. i love this painting it feels a lot like the work of ludwig bellman and old school comic strips. the size of the head in relation to the body may be a little large, but i think the painting still comes together very well

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  13. I fell in love with this piece when I first saw it. I love the feel of an illustration for a children's book, hopefully it would be called "My uncle Tom." All jokes aside, I feel that the pose of the figure is fantastic, and I love the colors you chose to work with. The splashes in the background work really well with the image and tie into the figure really well.

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