Overall

Vision Vision

Originality Originality

Technique Technique

Impact Impact

It's interesting to note just what sort of elements go into a piece that make it stand out amidst a collection of great artwork. In almost all cases, it comes down to what speaks loudest to the viewer and connects with them personally. To me, this piece has quite a mouth on it. Though it is drawn in a simplistic style and isn't overflowing with detail, it is far from a thoughtless doodle and clearly has a great deal of technical know-how thrown into it.This picture features two characters of varying size, yet they each get roughly the same amount of real estate due to the additional elements that make up the core meaning of the image. Fluttershy comes across as the dominating figure due to her height, and her smile puts an initial positive spin on the picture, making it a feel-good piece despite Angel's sulky frown. Supporting this mood, the two characters both contain soft, round edges, but Fluttershy is the only one of the two that uses hard angles; in fact, her general pose roughly forms a right triangle. The solid edges reflected against her rounded curves make Fluttershy look perky and cheerful, especially given how sparingly these edges are implemented. Moreover, her entire head is tilted in an almost nonsensical way, but the angle of the head still makes sense from an anatomical perspective, causing her to come across as carefree and silly. Her expanded wings emphasize these traits as well.Angel's head shape is rather skillfully designed, as it forms the same type of bean shape that makes up Fluttershy's head, only much more flattened. The flattening effect complements the flattening of the eyes, creating a natural chemistry between the two elements and heightening the sense of Angel's dissatisfaction, emphasized further by his lowered ears. His crossed forelegs close him off and pull him inwards, and despite the plentiful amount of space in the basin, his posture is anything but relaxed. His straightened body implies stubbornness, highlighting his reluctance to go along with Fluttershy's wishes, and we don't even need to see his pupils to know he's not looking her way. Helping out Angel's side of the image even more is the contrast created not just by Fluttershy herself, but also by the bubbles surrounding the bunny. Despite his attempt to sour up the experience with his bad mood, the bubbles provide an extra layer of silliness that cover up a portion of his real estate. Similar to the effect of a pouty, wild, adult lion wearing a hula skirt, the bubbles provide an immediate layer of jovial zaniness applied directly to his person, infesting his side with a little of Fluttershy's chipper attitude. The bubbles around his backside even resemble and exaggerate the fluffy cottontail commonly associated with bunnies, keeping Angel's symbol of 'pouty bunny' fresh in the viewer's mind and preventing his silent protest from being seen as anything but adorable.Also very impressive is the powerful sensation of weight that applies to Fluttershy's mane. The awkward tilt of her head gives the impression that her hair is weighing her down, and the way the hair flops onto the ground creates that 'mime in a box' illusion that makes it feel like there are forces acting against it. Fluttershy's tail peeking out on the other side doesn't quite have the same feel to it, though it mostly serves to expand the width of the total picture's silhouette and let the viewer see the way her tail is resting. Fluttershy's tail is the part of the image that I would say could be cut while hurting as little as possible about the overall piece, but much like the actual tail of an animal, I believe it serves to help in the balance department and provide a little extra something on the right side.The one aspect where I do see a little ambiguity is on top of Angel's head. The way the bubbles cover Fluttershy's hoof it makes it look like there's a little horn sticking out of Angel's forehead, and nothing about the image fits with such a theme. I will say that if this picture were slightly altered to imply Angel is behaving like a 'little princess', using the bubbles to 'dress him up' like one, it would immediately fix that issue, but it doesn't appear to me that Fluttershy is intentionally trying to make a horn with her hoof. Alternatively, having the lines flow so that it's clear that those two shapes on Angel's noggin are connected would fix the issue just fine.The color palette came out great with no hard blinding hues or dramatically unfitting colors. You even worked in a bit of shading using the dozen or so colors you did end up using, and the calming pink background was a nice choice to provide a warm, calming aura.This piece is a fantastic dive into the land of simplistic elegance. The intent of the picture is so transparent it melts in your mouth, and nearly all of the pieces synergize to support what is being said (visually). The characters have strong, contrasting personalities, and their attitudes and thoughts are on clear display. I can see clearly why this picture grabbed me so strongly out of over sixty other great works. Keep up the great work.