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LightBend [2024-11-18 00:22:23 +0000 UTC]

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Tinselfire [2017-05-24 15:01:28 +0000 UTC]

Overall

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact

Very skillfully executed, if with some peculiarities. In the upper neck area of the figure, as well as on the panels of the probe, it is not immediately obvious from where the light is coming - and the presence of a light source behind the nebula somewhat confuses as the light on the figure has a somewhat different colour. But in context, as the character is fairly obviously either a metaphor or an outright supernatural creature, such details are of less importance. That the limited colour scheme of mostly gold is not directly transferred to the character seems a further hint.
The technical execution is very well done: The shading excels, with the exception of a few apparent brush strokes around the shoulders and clavicles the texturing likewise. While the shape of the nebula appears as a long, horizontal streak appears somewhat unnatural, the actual painting with very good use of natural asymmetry leaves little to desire, and it works in context since the subject depends on it. It may be criticized that the nebula lacks some depth - I would probably not have resisted adding a fleeting cloud or two myself - but considering the title and subject, the line of unbroken darkness only adds to the impact. The asymmetry of the nebula also seems reflected in that of the character, and in the tilt of the probe, adding cohesion.
The subject is familiar, quite so from modern popular philosophy, but it is rarely rendered with the degree of skill seen here. There is plenty of mystery to be found. If I may speak from personal experience, the nebula - rarely depicted as anything but cosmic wonder - depicted as a source of blindness, the enormous human character fading into the background, the lone probe in free fall over the heart; these all bring to mind Carl Sagan's thoughts on secular pantheism. The chief concept being that all life are slivers of a cosmos that is utterly blind, through which it may see and know itself. The impact may be different for someone with vastly dissimilar thoughts on the same, but hardly lesser; blindness is invariably a powerful subject.
Lastly, the vision is hard to justly criticize, since after much consideration the train of thought behind the work is somewhat obscure. If I had not read beforehand in the description that this is an illustration for a notebook cover, things may have been different, but this is a subject I have never seen rendered for that media before. Was this the original intention? If so, the originality of the piece as a whole deserves special mention.

Well done.

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Wesley-Souza [2017-07-15 18:18:07 +0000 UTC]

Great concept

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CosmosKitty [2017-05-24 17:32:33 +0000 UTC]

Tinselfire (replying here as there seems to be some kind of glitch and the reply button is missing) 

Thanks very much for the critique! Though I should point out that it isn't a nebula but the arm of a galaxy, very heavily inspired by our view of the milky way in the night sky

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CaptainElsa [2017-05-23 02:36:27 +0000 UTC]

Hi. I think this is really interesting to the eye and at the same time other-worldly (duh it's out in space). I like the gold and gray contrast.

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MelodicChronic [2017-05-23 01:52:40 +0000 UTC]

Great concept!

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uxmal750ad [2017-05-23 01:48:17 +0000 UTC]

Talk about having your head in the clouds!  

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crafthood [2017-05-23 01:45:35 +0000 UTC]

great idea, humans looking into the universe  though the eyes of scientific gadgets ...

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