These caught my eye in the 'Animals' folder

I said in a recent journal that I would browse through our galleries and pick some works that appealed to me. I realised, after starting that process, that there are so many appealing works that my choices would necessarily end up as the subject of a number of journals. I decided that this series of journals should highlight six images from each gallery, making a journal for each gallery, and hopefully I could try to explain what it was about each selection that made ME stop and say 'this one'.

This time, it is the turn of the 'Animals' gallery - photomanip--club.deviantart.co…

After looking at my choices, if you visit the gallery and think there are others you like more, or as much, please feel free to respond with a link or thumbnail.

If you own these works and do not want them featured here, let me know by note and I will edit the journal to remove them and replace them with other choices.




No Mans Land - tndrhrtd37
I like the composition and light for this work. Whether conciously or unconciously, this conforms to the compositional 'rule of thirds' very nicely and feels well balanced to me. I love the color of the light. I don't know if it is a simple layer of color or it has been painted in Photoshop, and the work in Corel Painter is subtle. It almost looks like an old hand-colored postcard with those rich saturated and hand-applied colors (like those old Photochrom postcards - fav.me/d6m7wgw )

NB: These links discuss the 'rule of thirds' ...which is not really a 'rule' -
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_… digital-photography-school.com… photoinf.com/General/KODAK/gui…




Africa -  Nikulina-Helena
Another work that follows the compositional 'rule of thirds' and has beautiful light. The use of the circular frame to hold one's eyes in the center of the image works very well here. The soft pastel colors make it feel like an early morning or evening scene and the depth of field is convincing.




Romeo and Juliet -   Rafido
I like this because it is whimsical and slightly surreal. Once again the color palette caught my eye and the tipping of the horizon adds a dynamic feel to the work, The underwater part of this work is nice (I have an affinity to works that use water partitions, it is harder to get right than it looks) and the distant ship near the misty, foggy, blurry horizon anchors the era quite well. I also like the use of text in manips. There is a futility about the situation that makes the naming of the work particularly relevant. (This piece earned a well deserved DD April 2013.)




Swan -   Hioderro
This swan is a beautiful piece of stock which is placed into a dreamlike and misty dawnscape. What's not to like about it? The depth of field is wonderful, and again the compositional rule of thirds is apparent here, which, along with the light gives it a well-balanced look.




Broken Hearted -  Cosmic-Cherry-Tree
The sky in this caught my eye and felt very familiar. I finally realised I had used it myself in a very early manipulation. I like the concept of this, it is very poignant, but I keep looking into the distance to see if I can see the object of this forlorn chimp's affection. Even though that second figure is not there, the concept is good and the chimp's pose very resigned.




The guardian - evenliu
The color palette was the reason I stopped to look more closely at this. The challenging lighting is well handled and it is another good choice of stock. Again I like the misty horizon. I see it so often like that in the early morning around where I live.

Please note that I am not saying these are the best in the gallery (art is so subjective), but they are works that caught my eye, and that is something we all strive for, to catch someone's eye so we can share our vision with others. Again, if you see other works in that gallery that you like, feel free to comment, adding a link or thumbnail so we can visit the work and take a closer look.