That's awesome. I love the illustration, excellent work. :)

I really, really love these. When I buy my beach house I want to commission you to paint these on huge canvases. (dream on, Cindy)

This is truly wonderful, absolutely beautiful. However, i have a nitpick, =P I think the circle of background showing through should be a tad darker to give more depth and contrast.

EDIT: But now i look at it again, it's probably not a good idea as it would draw too much attention away from the foreground. =]

I'm glad you did another one of these. This has great movement and the wave is really good!

yee haw! ride that wave surf cowboy! great movement and the water is super!

Thanks for the nice comments :)

awww that's great... so cute ^_^

Very, very perty! I love cardinals...one of my favorite birds. Lol at cindy's comment.

i love cardinals, this is very pretty

Oh ok, well that's fine then. :)

"I like how the right side looks like she has a man back with a big dent in it! Like her man back side was in a big bar fight one night because this one guy took all the pretzels and one thing lead to another and ole' half man back thought she should get up and do something about it but then the other guy had a friend who usually doesn't come to that bar, no he usually goes to the 4 U lounge, but he went there this time and when ole' half man back stood up he knew he had to have his buddy's back... his buddy was a man so his whole back was a man back, not like this lady's back, but anyway, so he saw ole' half man back get up to do something about something an he slammed her upper right shoulder area with an extra 4 inch lead pipe he happened to be carrying around, not his good one that he had in his coat pocket for something else, but his extra one. So that's what I like about this picture when I look at it."

I'd just like to ask Zack one last question here. Is this what you call, 'formal criticism'? Of course, you could be referring to criticism given to terracotta by people besides Axil. But I'm pretty sure terracotta's posts were in response to Axil. Although, I haven't had 50 yrs of experience myself, I've never heard of giving criticism in 'tell-a-funny-story' form in any of my classes. And I can assure you, if that were the case, I wouldn't waste my money or time on such an unprofessional school.

No. What I was agreeing with Axil about was the issue of sexual abuse re: his cartoon. His critique was informal and absurd. I do not consider the issue of the picture being finished relevant to an analysis of the motivation behind any critique, formal or informal, since critiques on finished pictures are just as legitimate as critiques on works-in-progress.

The absurdity of Axil's comment speaks for itself, and to imply that he was being meanspirited for pointing out flaws in a finished picture demonstrates to me a lack of understanding of the nature of artistic critique in a learning environment. That is to say, Axil may have been meanspirited in his comment (I can't tell), but that has nothing to do with the fact that he was criticizing a finished picture.

I think this is my favorite of the pieces you have posted on this site. It's so warm and beautiful and the expression, pose, and composition are very appealing.

Oh my, I like this so very much..her pose and how her hair falls are both interesting, plus the colours you have used give this such richness..I can almost feel the warmth in it from here.. :D

This resembles a very pretty Asian woman I know named Lily.... very soft and warm, I like this style.

Its a wonder he can stand at all..lol Oh I see he had a shave, I love the blues on this :D

wtf?

reminds me of chalk

I sure like this one Donna. This one feels like a Leroi Neiman! (sp?) They have a really cool carousel called "Steeplechase" (or did) at Rye Playand in New York. This is not your gramma's carousel, it goes about 20 times faster to simulate a race. You do that kinda dismount on that one and you'll end up in California

oh my gosh poppa..what a nice thing to say! I never saw his work before (LeRoy Neiman) but I just looked him up. Cool stuff! smilin at my pop, Donnalag

You see why I said that? It looks very much like his stuff Its a good one

Another fantastic work.

thank you ladies :)

my mouth is watering for grape flavored tangerines in an orange orchard. I also see lots of Spanish moss hanging from the trees and an old Louisiana estate with white pilars and full of voodoo secrets at the end of the lane.

A view of a 1950's Grand Prix auto race heading towards the distance.

The cloud queen has returned to take her rightful seat on the throne