Diego Velazquez

Sorry that I missed the posting for yesterday. School had my whole day taken up. But regardless, today's pciture will be The Rokeby Venus. I really love this painting, the pose of the reclining female, the relaxed, almost uninterested facial expression in the mirror and the lovely skin tones. But I sat back and really looked at this painting and wondered what the one thing that really stuck out to me about this image. The thing I came up with is the fabrics. It reminded me of something Rebecca Guay (professional fantasy illustrator) told while while studying with her. When critiquing one of my personal pieces, she stressed the importance of fabric. Fabric needs to look like fabric. Fabric needs to show folds and creases and all the characteristics of fabric. Looking at the fabric in this piece, it almost has a life of its own. The sheen on the folds and the combination of subtle colors gradients and unsaturated light areas really show a great understanding of how light renders material. In addition, the ribbon on the mirror (another material), as it sits draped over the cherub's wrists and mirror frame reflect the colors of the curtain in one area and the woman's skintones in others. One thing to note is that is shows no reflection in the mirror (just an observation).

So, ultimately, in addition to the overall draw of the imagery in the piece, it has shown me how much attention needs to be paid to fabric.