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artofmadness — Couple Descending Into Madness
Published: 2010-03-02 05:19:51 +0000 UTC; Views: 5241; Favourites: 203; Downloads: 13
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Description
9x11, gouache on Arches cold press watercolor paper.Edit: There, I cleaned it up a bit more. I'm still not thrilled with how it turned out, but I think that I've just reduced the cringe-factor by about 20%.
This is a truly somewhat terrible parody of one of my favorite paintings by J.C. Leyendecker: [link]
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Comments: 90
Oh, my God, I never replied to this!
I'm so sorry!
Thank you very much for taking the time to share your feedback with me. I really appreciate it, and your input means a lot.
I actually thought that leaving the woman unarmed made her seem even more dangerous than the man, coupled by the fact that, whatever they're descending toward, she's in the lead. Perhaps she could have used a weapon too, though. (And, if I were to do it again, I'd probably give her a bundle of dynamite.)
I agree with you completely about the hellfire, and I wish that I had done that too. As for the staircase: I wasted far too many hours of my life on that, and if I couldn't pull it off after that investment, then it just wasn't meant to be!
Thank you again for all of your feedback.
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I really like this! Can I buy this or a print of this please?
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Thanks a lot! I've got a couple different sized prints listed on Etsy: www.etsy.com/
listing/166668698/couple-descending-into-madness-print-of#
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Hey I looked for this print on your Etsy and couldn’t find it! Do you have a website I can purchase it on?
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Thank you very much, sir! Painting after the styles of the masters is fun but it's also so humbling.
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Stunning work! good technique and nice atmosphere! you played with the feature of postmodern pop-art to paint gas-masks, mustaches and so on in every realistic piece available...and did a good job. I personally find that the composition is not quite well, but that's a lack the original has.
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Wow, thank you for the very insightful comment! I love Leyendecker's original piece, and I thought it would be fun t give it a little modern twist. I think that Leyendecker's original composition works well enough, but I didn't do a very good job of cropping this piece.
Thanks for the wonderful feedback!
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This is great! So impressive the theme and your working on coloring and shading is awesome.
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This is wonderful. I love the parody and it's so well painted without being completely copied; it's clear that your own style is still there. Great concept
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You have been featured in my delicious, new journal I got CURVES!!
Hope you like it 
Enjoy!!!
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I love the way you handled the dress and glove.
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Wonderful job.
Love the negative space and the details in the shawl and the banister, but all the technical stuff takes a backseat to the concept.It's very ... art deco by way of neo-noir, I guess would be the only way I could describe it.
Good luck in the contest.
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Wow, that's a great description! I've never heard the term "neo-noir," but I definitely think that it fits.
I'm glad that you like how this one turned out, and thanks so much for wishing me luck!
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This is one of my favorite Leyendecker paintings as well! I love the idea, well executed, and I'm glad you didn't copy the painting exactly as it is. The only thing that bothers me is the woman's mask- for some reason, the placement makes her head look too small.
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Ha!
He's so awesome that I couldn't have copied it exactly, even if I'd tried to!
You're right about her mask! It's the angle.
If her head was just tilted a few more degrees toward the other figure, it would have been so much better.
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I know what you mean! I've copied him before, but it's impossible to get it perfect- he's too damn good!
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ahhggh wow I have to start going through my inbox faster--this was submitted a month a god geez DDD:
BUT WOW haha the whole parody and concept itself it greaaat<3 gasmasks make everything perfect but your execution already is fantasticcc I'm looking at this and knowing I'd never be able to do that with watercolor. I really love the dress and the folds and wrinkles in that D8!
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*digs underneath a growing pile of comments to find hers*
MEW!!!
Thanks so much!
Better late than never, right? Haha. No worries; I know how it is. I'm terrible at doing anything in a timely manner, as you can see.
I'm glad that you like this one! I'm such a sucker for those gasmasks. 
And I'm almost twice your age, remember? You'll absolutely be blowing my crap out of the water once you get a little more experience under your belt.
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really beautiful, I love the general composition and the use of colors
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Aww, thanks so much!
I'm glad that you enjoy it.
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I actually like it quite a lot. The composition and black background kind of grip you and make you look (but that's the original's merit, haha). The addition of gas masks seems very fitting. It keeps the elegance and makes everything creepy at the same time
I think your mistake is in the colors: the original has an overall orangeish tint. You tried to achieve it but the yellow is too pure, and you avoided using it on the dress even though you should have. Now the yellow clashes with the dark pink. The blue is perhaps too pure as well, but that doesn't bother me as much.
Anyway, that's just what I would change about it: I would've started with a light orange wash on the whole scene. Ohter than that, no critiques really! I love it.
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Yay, another watercolorist!!
Thanks so much for your feedback. It's been duly noted.
I painted this entire thing with just the three primary colors, mixing and building up the colors on the paper with about a trillion glazes, and I admit that I made about a trillion mistakes in the process.
And that's why J.C. Leyendecker's celebrated as a master artist and I'm just some deviantART shmuck.
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That's astonishing and truly, deeply horrifying. Good job xD
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Yay!
That means it's working!
Thank you very much.
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Thanks so much!
I'm glad that you like it.
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That's a bit disturbing! But brilliant at the same time, spotless coloring and detailing! Wonderful!
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Oh, thank you very much!
I actually don't get very many comments from other watercolorists, for some reason.
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Hmmm that's strange. I don't know why either
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I love it. From the subject, to the tehnique. Not to mention colors, and the lack of "real" space. And the art deco enviroment. Perfect.
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Aww, thanks so much!
Perfect?!
Hardly, but I'm very glad to know that you enjoy it!
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The composition is excellent, I love the pallet and the negative space, also.
But I think you should have made a decision about the eyeholes of both gas masks, I think the blank ones vs. seeing through to the man's eyes on the right is a little odd, especially considering how much care you took with the tones values in the rest of your painting.
Aside from that, I really like this painting and it caught my eye right away.
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It's beautiful! No sad faces!
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Thank you so much for your input!
The whole time I was painting this, I wasn't sure how to approach the lenses. I left hers brightly reflecting the light just because she's closer to the chandelier, but you're probably right.
I should have applied it to the both of them.
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i think your skills and all the details you put in this are just stunning, excellent job
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Oh, thank you so much!
Those details take forever!
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Haha. I see what you mean.
Thank you very much!
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I think it's very cool, your gouache work is superb (I can never get to that level of painting skill and intricacy). The concept itself and how you used one of your favorite paintings of another artist, is pretty impressive, the similarity is amazing - I don't think it's so terrible ^_^. The gas masks, pistol, and the couple seemingly descending to a party reminds me a hint of splicers in Bioshock.
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