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simbalm — The Atlas
Published: 2017-05-04 11:12:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 1427; Favourites: 222; Downloads: 0
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Description
And I think to myself: What a wonderful world!
I approached this piece as an illustration of the song "What a wonderful world!"
For me the song is about marveling at the world around us, which evokes the wide eyes of children and the soft smiles of wise old people.
The song starts by marvelling at nature but ends by marvelling at people. For me, despite everything, people remain the most incredible thing about the world, so I chose to focus this piece on the people, while evoking nature through the trees, the sky, the roses and, symbolically, the Atlas.
It's also about colours, which is the reason why I chose to place the scene at sunrise and to go pretty strong with the local colours and let them unify through value and lighting.
The piece is very much inspired by my two grandpas, one being an early riser and great reader and the other a lover of beautiful books.
The contest is over and we have gone through a voting process to select the winners.
In First Place
The Atlas
by
:iconsimbalm:
1200 points or 3 months Core Membership
"This to me is what the theme was all about. Love and beauty in the world. Love is beautiful and the love between this person and maybe his Great Grandchild is evident. The window shows the beautiful sunset outside and the leaves of green and on the window sill is "red roses too""
"Takes the theme from a new angle. Really strong storytelling."
"Grandpa connecting with the baby, near the window view of trees and colorful sunset... Perfect!"
"When I first saw this wonderful portrait, it was quite an emotional moment for me, as I thought about myself with my own grandfather all those years ago... and as the artist mentioned in the description, this too embraced the song and
I also did this for the composition class taught by NathanFowkesArt at schoolism.com
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Comments: 74
This is such a very moving painting (especially in combination with the description), so full of love. 
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I'm speechless it's so beautiful, your description of it makes it even better.
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Wonderful artwork ;u; Very deep and beautiful ;u;
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You have captured that special moment that, at in some point, I've had with each of my 8 children. So beautiful, so touching. I mean that.
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That's really heart-warming to read! Thanks for all the support!
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...such a beautiful and thoughtful Artwork...wonderful concept...
the values of Mother Nature and Mother Earth we all should transmit from generation to generation, in order to respect, cherish and respect it and all the living souls...
Sincere Congratulations for Your First Price in the contest of , it is amply deserved, Simon!
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Thank you very much, Flori, for your lovely comments!
Have a beautiful day!
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Congratulations for winning first prize in the "Wonderful World" contest!
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Your thoughts on this piece are really touching. I'm a person who puts no thought into most of what I draw; I just draw and see what happens. It's super special that your painting was also inspired by your grandpas. What a wonderful tribute!
As for critiques on this piece- everything outside the window looks beautiful. The composition of the whole painting is striking, and I'm really drooling over the reflection of light on the wallpaper- HOW did you do that?? 
The one odd thing is the bottom of the painting. We see the seat of grandpa's pants and the bottom of the pillow, and the blanket. Maybe it's just me, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what that brown spot was, and where the kid's legs were...I would have preferred to see the blanket sort of bunched up around grandpa, so that we had a wiggly patch of white and then the blue of the blanket, keeping things simple and not distracting from the beautiful details above.
Thank you for the llama badge, by the way. I know I don't have a lot on my deviant, but if you have any critiques I'd love to hear them! I miss being around other artists- I finished college and haven't found another artist community yet.
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Hi Marissa and thanks for the feedback and the watch!
I'm quite surprised that you're impressed by the wallpaper. It's really simple. I used the basic soft round brush to paint a soft gradation of light, and then added a pattern in overlay blend mode. But you could also do the opposite: start with a pattern and then add the light and shadows with appropriate blend modes.
It seems a few people have trouble understanding the bottom of the painting. The truth is that I built the pose around the book, so the way the baby is sitting in the grandpa's lap doesn't actually make complete sense, which is why I chose to drop that part into complete shadow. But apparently, people still want to try to figure it out, so I mustn't have done a good enough job of drawing attention away
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You're very welcome, thanks for your return critique. Ok, I think I have an idea what you mean with the wallpaper. I'm not a very techie artist, so I'm easily impressed, I guess, haha. Been using photoshop for 5 years now and still only know the basics. I could use some more youtube tutorials on that...
Ah yeah, it's a pain when that one small thing becomes a distraction for the viewers. I'm sorry I critiqued you on something that's been brought up so much already, haha.
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"And I think to myself... what a wonderful world." And the next thing I think... "It's a small world after all."
I really like this piece - the texture of the leaves, the simplicity of the wallpaper, the expressions on the old mans face, and the child's interest is well captured. The colors are also well used and the rose did catch my attention
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Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah, those "shrubs" are supposed to be a line of trees far away, I struggled with them and they don't read well. Probably should have used a little more reference for them.
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You're welcome
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That's a guy who's happy with how his life has been truly worth something.
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Well I disagree, particularly with your use of past tense.
Nothing in this image suggests that this man has accomplished anything meaningful before.
Being happy in your old age is not about doing so much beforehand that you can relax and bathe in the glory of your past.
Being happy in your old age (and in other similar situations of weakness) is about having the wisdom to relish the little things and to continue to marvel at the world, which is what the song is about.
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Well...sorry. for misunderstanding.
img.memesuper.com/535110ab2b34…
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No problem
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It's okay.
To be honest I'm a bit embarrassed I didn't see that you put a song in the description. •~•
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Thanks- a very nice sentiment - good to remember the wonderful aspects of our world.
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