The Still Evening

#7

I think really The Still Evening is not evocating solitude exactly, but I fell alone in this street, with the red sky closing the horizon and the mysterious lamppost.

Well, for one thing, the sky isn’t closing the horizon because there is no horizon. And lamposts, in general, really aren’t that mysterious. The only mystery would be what is casting such a bright light to make the lamppost’s shadow? :stuck_out_tongue:

As for the new image. Again, you missed your mark. The image is way too bright, for one. Solitude should express exactly that… solitude.

  1. The state or quality of being alone or remote from others.
  2. A lonely or secluded place.

The pillar doesn’t look ‘alone’ because you’re way too close to it and it’s too brightly lit. Solitude should convey more darkness, less light. A farther distance to the subject with more space surrounding it. As you have it now you’re right up there with it. So in reality, it’s not in solitude. It needs to be observed from a distance rather than up close. More open space around it, less light.

Also, the wire’s reveal that it’s not alone. It’s connected to something. Somewhere off the image is another pillar and they are related because of the connecting wires. Solitude is a scarecrow in a vast, forgotten, dead cornfield. It’s a lone bouy out at sea ringing its bell for no one to hear. It’s a single tree growing in a most peculiar place like the middle of the desert or high on top of a mountain.

I hope those will help you visualize your goal. :slight_smile:

#8

Both pictures look nice but neither captures the idea of solitude. Borrowing from what made in uterus and dave_baer have said, you’ll probably want to use cool colors and a landscape view. Show lots of empty space, especially in a courtyard or train station usually crowded with people but is now empty. In your first pic, the colors are warm and festive and there could be people just around the corner. In the second I feel cold but don’t know what’s around me.

Are you determined to make this a 1st person view or would you consider including the subject? If you put the subject in the picture you have the added option of body language and proximity. A person can find solitude or feel lonely even in a crowded space, especially if nobody is turned toward him and it can be depicted by hunched shoulders and a guarded position. Also, since solitude can be either a good or a bad thing, decide if the person is enjoying his time alone (reading a book?) or hates it (homeless person muttering to himself).

#9

I agree with the other posters. The typical ingredients are there to express solitude: stark, vacant nighttime, settings. A singular element unaccompanied. But it’s the overtones that are missing and that might be in part our fault. I mean “solitude” may not necessarily be a negative, meloncholy thing, but as social beings that is our usual knee-jerk take on it. We tend to see it as a signifier for the ultimate isolation of embodied consciousness. Your works have a kind of cheeriness or implied optimism in the handling and lighting. There is a basic interest in life exhibited in your works which needs to be squared with the feelings of personal solitude. From somewhere I remember a commentor talking about the basic tragedy of men who like to live alone in the wilderness. Well is it a tragedy? Maybe, maybe not. You need to engage questions on that level in order to get at this theme.

ie, winner of “Loneliness” topic at IRTC
“Insomnia” by Gena Obukhov

#10

Great link ! perhaps you will perceive this work more accurate to express solitude, it’s name is “THE ORPHAN”, it’s Oil Painting, I think it really express it, if not, I’m totally wrong :slight_smile:

Sorry for the number of images, but we are talking about a feeling, not about a concrete work or technique.

#11

I think the last one expresses solitude much better than the other ones :slight_smile:

Maybe you can enhance the feeling by making the buildings/square really huge, just an idea :slight_smile:

#12

“The orphan” definitely does the job. I’m not sure if the boy is playing ball at night because he likes being alone or because he is totally alone and it doesn’t matter when he plays. Color is blue, building is large and featureless and no lights are on. Child looks out of place, but he’s not self conscious about it. Not really sad, but I want to get inside his head, but he seems like he’d want me to stay out. If you wanted lonely in addition to solitude, have him stop playing and stand alone with his ball. Just random thoughts. Nice job.

#13

Yeah, the latest mght be closest to “solitude”

These images are all classic signifiers of solitude. The solitary lamppost shown indirectly, the solitary tower obdurant to our need, the solitary game of ball. But I wonder if with you it might be more about “exclusion” I keep trying to reconcile the brightness of the ambient light. It constantly strikes me as a positive, cheery vision. But maybe the intention is intense, glaring, angry,… excluded?

#14

first one is the best, with what seems to be small influences from Gustav Klimt.

Interesting colors

#15

i agree, the last one with the boy is on the money.
i really like your choice of colors. looking at these images makes me wanna cry.

#16

Hmmm…

Am I the only one to notice the strong phallic symbols in the 1st and second images (lamp shadow, single jutting tower) ?

They seem to evoke the thought of sexual frustration more than lonliness.

“THE ORPHAN” shows solitude because is shows a small anonymous person almost lost in a vast expanse of emptiness (notice how the figure breaks the rule of thirds so it’s not immediatly seen until you search for it).

The key elements for depicting solitude that the first two lack seem to me to be:

  1. A human element is needed
  2. The human element must look to be isolated from the rest of the image.
  3. The colors must be desaturated or washed out, lonliness is bleak not rich in color.
#17

Sexual frustration and phallic symbols? I think not. It’s a very simple vision I think.

#18

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

#19

The isolated tower reminds me of the monotonous, lonely experience that is the internet. Though you’re connecting to a hive of others, you’re still the only human.

#20

Very interesting point fo view, I have never thought it so.

#21

Solitude is a personal emotion. I vividly remember a comment made by musician Jeff Golub in Naked City that there is nothing like being in a city (New York) with X-million people looking down on you and feeling totally alone.

To me, any graphic representation of “solitude” needs to have the camera positioned very close to the subject. It doesn’t need to strive for “photorealism.” In fact it probably shouldn’t.

#22

nachofrades,

they said “no fanboy posting”, so i’m gonna pretend i’m giving a real crit here :wink:
(but i’m absolutely in love with your artwork)

i like the idea you’re expressing solitude over several different works. As a subject which can be taken in different lights, I think If these were my works (oh of these were my works!!) I would keep them thematically similar…
IE the last one (the orphan) has a boy experiencing solitude in one possible way… the first might have an anatomically similar stylised girl’s shadow cast on the wall… and the tower, perhaps someone sitting reflecting - and perhaps a little melancholic from atop (but styled the same… a series)

they are fantastic as they are, but if you have your heart set on conveying the strict notion of “solitude” i might look into including the subject in such a way…

lachlan

#23

Hello paraplex, thanks for your words.

The ones that include a figure or a shadow are for me rare exceptions, because the goal I want to reach is that YOU (the one that is looking the canvas) is the one wich is in the scene, and you in that place surely feel solitude, it´s the meaning of the figure lack, the figure, the shadow in the wall, all what you want… is not neccesary if you can feel inside the picture.

#24

Hi!
I like all your pictures, and I read a lot of interresting opinions about those, For me the first is the best to express solitude, despite of the strange perspective of the image. I tell you why: when I looked at it I had 2 impressions: 1. it is sunset, the lightpost (a person) is alone, and soon it will be in total darkness, and maybe theres noone to turn him on (to bring him home). Second feeling, is that the sun going down, and slightly coming closer to us, so the shadow of the wall going to catch the lamp. So the image for me is expressing that the darkness is coming. This is why I like more than the others.
Cheers,

#25

I see solitude in the first image thus:
The object experiencing solitude (to me at least) is the lamp post.
The lamp post is itself a light emiting object, and it’s being singled out in this painting, the shadow of a single lamp post being cast by the bright light of what appears to be the setting sun (colour of the wall on the left and the long, shallow shadows imply this).
The sunlight is of a similar nature to the lamp in that they both emit light, but yet it’s not, because the lamp provides light, when the sun is down. Even so, after the sun sets, this lamp post will be alone, casting it’s light in to an open space (There are no other shadows near this lamp post, so one must assume that it is alone, in a vast open space, for the setting sun to be casting such a shadow on the wall to the left)
The colour of the shadow itself in contrast to the colour of the sun hitting the wall, sets it apart from the middle ground of the painting, but ties it with the foreground. The foreground of the painting ties the alley and the lampost together. The shadows in the ally, are where this lampost should be.
This lampost is alone, in solitude. Maybe it won’t be alone when the sun sets, and it can spead it’s light and joy across the courtyard, and into the alley, where it can reach in and play it’s light against the brick walls in the alley, as the sun does at the present time in this painting.

/ramble

Very great painting, conveys solitude to me.

#26

The first one, the one with the lamp, feels like someone’s running from the alley and finally sees light, a lamp post’s shadow, a sign of civilzation, a sign of hope and aid.

The second one… doesn’t really stirr up anything to me except the relaxing noise of powerlines in the night (that’s my own thing… not saying you’re relaxed by the powerline’s noise :slight_smile: )

the third one is, to me, a chase as the human figure is chasing a floating ball (a goal in his life?).