The Craving Dog

Creativity - 9
My first reaction to this piece was joy - the cute longing of the dog and the bright colors instantly brought a smile to my face. I think your intent of showing more emotion than detail was a fun way to go about this project, and the simple colors of the piece bring this out. It’s a simple yet effective spin that drew upon Matisse’s color and style.

Execution - 8
The outcome of your execution resulted in a colorful homage to Matisse’s style that shows your love for your dog. I think the selection of the picture resulted in an emotional anchor for the piece, and I love the expression on its face; it feels like it’s not the subject of a painting, but that it’s almost alive. I have two specific suggestions for improvement. One, I think that sharper outlines on the individual objects in your scene would allow them to be distinguished better from one another. Two, I would love to see the dog itself painted in the picture as well to integrate it into the composition of the piece. Beyond those things, I think this is a solid first attempt at using photoshop.

Context - 9
I think this work is well informed in its use of color to strip away some reality to express emotion. The bright, complementary colors work together to evoke a sense of love and joy, just as Matisse’s work did, and just as many other works of the time did.

Documentation - 9
You had a clear explanation and a good amount of detail. Perhaps the only detail I was confused about was what you meant when you talked about drawing margins. Are you referring to the margins around the edge of a piece of paper?

I enjoyed your overall work and I think that despite your being “not exactly a painter”, the end result turned out well. Keep it up!

The colors are very vivid and make me feel cheerful, which it seems was your main objective with this piece, so that was successful. I liked how you chose contrasting colors and blurred them together; it resembles Matisse's style (particularly in the background of his painting) but is still distinct. The fact that the dog was not painted over is somewhat jarring, it makes me focus on the borders between photograph and painting and the dog does not seem to fit in with the rest of the painting. Additionally, since the dog is white, my eye is drawn much more to the brightly-colored surroundings rather than the actual focus of the photo. I enjoyed your description, and appreciate how you emulated not only Matisse's physical style but also the emotions that he drew from. Overall I think this was a successful reproduction, and my only suggestion is to paint the dog as well.

Your analysis and interpretation of the piece is very thorough. Because of your documentation, I had a very clear understanding of what I was looking at, and why you chose the subject matter and technique that you did. The final product expresses many of the same emotions that the original piece does, and the actual photograph of your dog adds an interesting modern element to the image.