Pretty.

thanks

i love koi :)

as do i. i have a few and hopefully this fall i will have their pond done outside even though it is a very ghetto pond. basically using plastic sheeting and a swimming pool in the ground for it. and a lot of landscaping hopefully!

take pics when it's done!!

Oh indeed i plan to. hopefully it will go nicely!

it should! it sounds awesome!

This is a beautiful start, but I think that there are many things I do not liek about this one. The figure is very nicely done and is obviously the center of the piece. It is a wonderfully drafted subject. My mai nconcern is in the background. The lily pads really show contradictory information asto the angle we are looking upon the water. I can see you probably strugled with it a bit. The lilypad at the top middle is slightly foreshortened [or at least appears that way] while the others are flat. All of the flowers suggest that we are looking at the water on an angle. Also, while I understand that they are indeed waterplants and have wonderful flowers to present, I am not seeign a relationship between the subject and the plants. They are completely seperate of one another and do not show any sort of hint at depth. This causes the whole piece to be somewhat flat. I abesolutely love the subject, and I love your style, but I think that this one just lacks any kind of discernable depth.

i am guessing you do not view a lot of japanese sumi-e arts on subjects like this. for that is how it is done. it is the style. and you are looking down on top of the fish. like you would in a viewing pond. hence the fact that the leaves of the plants are flat and looked down on. however lotus leaves and lilypad leaves (which is what is here) sometimes lift from the water and would be foreshortened. for some reason though in the art that this is based on the flowers are oft drawn in profile. not straight down on like the perspective would indicate. also it only has details that evoke a scene. not full scene details. often water would be represented by a few lines and some streaks of colour. very much in the minimalist vien of japanese thinking. like in haiku or ikebana or bonsai where it is important details not entire filling out of details that create the scene. also much like in cubist works of the west that were inspired by both science and eastern thought depth is an illusion and it is part of the floating world

When I saw this piece in person I appreciated it much more. The streaks of blue with the water helped it along. Style or not I have trouble appreciating it artistically for teh reasons that I have stated. Perhaps it is an aquired taste? It just seems to me there there are many elements here that could go together but don'y really interact with oen another in the piece.

well to each their own i guess. people like what they like and that is all there is to that. i mean people listen to and buy country music and kitchey toll paintings so...

indeed. We shall have to agree to disagree ~hugg~ ^^

Indeed! HUGS!

Everyone loves goldfishies!
Hoorays for the Carps!

Simple and sweet.

Thanks