For comment/critique contest, December 2012

At first glance, this artwork has captivated me by its lovely, intense colour palette, but the thing that stands out the most while observing this piece is the emotion it conveys. After I enlarged the picture my eyes were immediately led to the hand and then to the face of the woman. I immediately felt her pain. The details of her facial expression are superb and I love how they are enhanced on her cheek, eye and nose by the reflects of a frontal light created by the ripple.
Anatomically, the figure seems extremely well made to me. I like the pose, it is very natural and the gesture conveys a sense of lightness and delicacy.
Regarding her clothes, the dress is very simple, yet the texture and the details on the front and on the cord make it look quite elaborate. Also, the floral pattern you chose as a texture is very refined and looks good on her.
The wings are very well painted too. Angels’ wings are usually depicted as if they were solid, but you chose to make them semi-transparent and I like that because in this way you enforce the idea of her being divided between a human, ‘concrete’ part and a supernatural, ‘abstract’ one, like she is trapped inside a limbo.
The background is beautiful. I love churches’ frescos, your reference was lovely and you did a great work recreating it adding more shadows. The contrast helps to give a major sense of depth.

One thing I do not like is the shape of the borders of the painted canvas. It is overall irregular, but you can sense a sort of symmetry among the upper and the bottom part of it: it seems like it is more squared on the right side, and more oval on the left. I had notice this clearly because the edges of the canvas are sharp and they end in an abrupt way.
To avoid this, I personally think that you could have blurred the edges, instead of leaving them the way they are now. By blurring them, you could have enhanced the idea of the image being merged with the screen, but moreover, it would seem like the scene itself is fading away. It could have also given the idea of a vision disturbed by upcoming tears. I mention tears because they are the first image that came to my mind when I read the text that accompanies this painting.
Anyway, this is my personal opinion and only a little suggestion. But even leaving the consistency of the borders as it is now, without blurring them, I think that the presentation of the work would benefit if the four angles were more similar to one another and the overall shape was more regular.

In conclusion, I think this is a wonderful work to look at and a perfect starting point to make your mind fly. I hope this critique will be somewhat helpful to you, even if the work I tried to analyze is not very recent. Good luck with your future works!