Poor deer he looks depressed.

This reminds me of Jean Valjean in the bishops house after he gets out of prison.

It's so easy to find something worth dying for; so hard to find something worth living for.

Well said.

I am just in love with your work.

The lighting really helps the mood of the piece. I really like how you did the coloring, with all of the textures and patterns.

It's sometimes in running from ourselves that we find we're the fleetest of foot. Inevitably though, our breathing becomes too harsh to handle, and we fall into our own arms, beleaguered and angry as we are and beg for something more. Something bigger. Something different. It's when we face our failures that successes open up to us; When we realise that we know just enough to know that we know nothing at all.

Good piece. I've only just now seen your gallery. Powerful work.

alcohol! Nice work, i can relate to this.

The theme is, perhaps, too close. You are unable to hear how much you have been saying all along. I have described art as a drug with unpredictable results — highly addictive, but available only from a brain-damaged pusher who can't always remember to bring enough, who sometimes brings the wrong thing, and sometimes doesn't even show up when you're hurting the most for a fix.

I've been there, flies and all.

> I give up.

You speak as if being able to draw were nothing at all. You speak as if being able to convey ideas to strangers were nothing at all. You speak as if the treble gift of sight and thought and feeling were nothing at all. Who are you to reject these gifts?

If I had even one-tenth of your skill, I would never give up. Never.





Mark

As someone who arguably maybe has one-tenth of his skill, I have to say, I think I have some comprehension of his conundrum. The more you learn, the more perception you gain, and the farther you can see. The ant looking at the giraffe looks up and says "if I were one-tenth as tall as he, surely I could see the place where the world comes to an end." To the neophyte just beginning to draw, the difference between the skill of Rousseau and Rembrandt is imperceptible, because their eye has not been trained. As you progress in skill, you start to realize that there is no pinnacle to be attained, just an ever more swiftly retreating horizon, and ever more struggle to accomplish anything meaningful.

To one just starting out, being able to create a recognizable figure is an accomplishment worthy of celebration. When you attain a greater level of skill, the figure has to be not only recognizable as to species, but to individual, and further on, the figure needs an activity, and then needs intent, and then an emotional state, and then needs to find its context within a greater meaning which is wholly open to the artist to define. Celebration seems rather presumptuous at that point. That is the abyss you stare into, and hope you can drag some meaning out of it before something in there takes an interest in you and drags you down. It isn't so much about skill anymore, but the ability to use that skill as a lifeline to something larger than yourself, when you probably don't even know what that is, but you have the uneasy feeling that nobody can guide you there, because the trail they blaze cannot be yours.

Eventually though, if you think about it enough, you start to feel like Slartibartfast: "Who cares? Perhaps I'm just old and tired, but I've always thought that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say, 'hang the sense of it,' and keep yourself occupied."

For ant and giraffe, for neophyte and Rembrandt, the issue remains very simple: do you give up, or do you continue? There is no difference in their pain, no difference in the life-altering implications of their choice. But it is a choice.



Mark

IT took me hating myself to start making the changes to being the person I want to be.

Because in cases like this, anger -- clean, focused anger -- is more powerful, more positive, than despair. Despair is a sealed, monolithic door... but anger can blast that door into dust, and let a bit of light in.

That little bit of light can make all the difference in the world.



Mark

yes and no. I think once you hit a monolithic wall, all the same, it makes you change directions.

Different metaphor, similar idea.

And a similar result: life goes on, and gets better. That is the part that matters.



Mark

this is so gorgeous. i love the everything i see in this.
and i think that as long as you create you haven't given up. even a drawing about giving up has hope.

And as long as I'm angry, I'll add one further point:

> I don't want to hurt anyone or anything.

Then never give up... because giving up would hurt you.




Mark

You inspire me. You are beautiful.

Wow!

This piece is so powerful, and so beautifully done. It's truly touching.

Capreolus wrote:I've found the unsettling thing I was running away from - myself; the realisation that I'm a failure, a horrible and weak person.
Silly and unstrung. I don't even need anyone pointing a finger and laughting at me to realise it anymore.

I have no capabilities - I'm affraid of everything - I know no resorts.
I don't want to hurt anyone or anything.
I give up.

You haven't given up believing you have to succeed, or be strong. You haven't given up needing capabilities, or wanting to protect yourself from everything. You haven't given up letting yourself take responsibility for others' pain.

So give up. And continue.

In my experience, the only people who don't think like that about themselves are those that don't think about much in general. It'd be a universal human experience if everybody had at least some capacity for introspection.

This was me not so many days ago. Still is in great part.

I feel like this at the moment... have even a bottle with me. Very good.

This is probably some of the best stuff on FA period, and to declare it a failure, which is something no doubt somewhere at least on the back of most artists' minds when ever they do anything, is nothing unheard-of. Notice: the series of 57 paintings you did which actually transcend commonality and are actually quite refreshing material here are not really within the 'failure condition', given the responses to them here.

I mean, if you're done with this, then you're done. But don't let what it is you do and love wether you choose to see it as such, just collapse and fade.

Maybe you're just pissed at the whole anthro animal thing at the moment, and thats totally okay.
Because I'm sure many artists who do something involving animals engaging in less-behaviorally-natural manners, regardless of physical anthropomorphisation, do sometimes run into these walls. Even walls against the furrydom, sometimes caused by it.

Either way, I suppose I mainly just decided to say something because it's been a month. And it seemed the description on #57 has thus far lived-up to it's apparent finality.

This piece, and it's descriptor text, speak my words for me. Words No one will give ear to, and words I am afraid to say; in ways that I find myself incapable of expressing. The closest thing I have to this piece may be found here, I would ask your opinion of it:
http://nominus-expers.deviantart.co.....-Note-61553195

Thank you for expressing this.

:( I hope you're okay.

wow **claps**

Your words and art stole my mind for awhile.

So much struggle to deal with your own sentience.. looking for a few true points of intrinsic worth, and meaning. I wished I could be an animal to get away from it, too. I still do sometimes.

END SCENE

"Alas the star that burns twice as bright, burns to naught twice as fast. And thus one that burns even brighter, may only stay in the sky but a moment against the ages incalculable."

A very nice piece. Simple, evocative, and aesthetically pleasing.

Composition: the dominant elements of this work are the bottle and the head, which are good counterpoints and balance the image. The arms are positioned in such a way that the right gestures towards the bottle, as do the fingers of the left, giving this work a nice flow. The second bottle at the lower right helps to stop the eye from wanting to leave the canvas due to the pointing of arm and table edge.

Technical: The thing I like most about this is how brush strokes are used so well; it's very welcome with so much furry art being sterile digital works. The brush strokes _make_ the image; giving the head and arms a sculpted look, and contributing much to the mood of the piece. The body, not being a focus, is rightly de-emphacized. The bottle shows very nice reflective highlights, and the almost crisp, defined rendering of the bottle is a good contrast to the less structured form of the head.

Lighting and color is spot-on. Looked at objectively, there's quite a range between light and dark, more than what it _feels_ like due to the total mood and affect of the entire work.

I just think that your absence is a great loss for the FA community, really. I admired you, as an artist who really stood apart from the noise and the buzz... you could say the contrary and try to erase what you have done thus far but you remain the same a true artist... we may feel weak and horrible sometimes, it's true, but you will always remain an intelligent and precious human being worth of respect, not only for me, but for all us. Understood...?

Touching to one such as I rather new to this place. New to your artwork and yet I already feel ashamed to look upon the details, you are a one and true loss to the community.. I would wish to speak to you ever you get this small amount of text and words. I can only wish you well and somehow hope what little I can say or hope will effect your life for the better.

Goodbye troubled artist; I wish to be nothing like you