Starved to Death Art Critique

The Artwork is called “Starved to Death” by Skylar Sullivan. It’s an oil wash on canvas painting. It’s a side profile of a girl, with her skeleton visible through her face. Her dark brown hair is tied up in a bun, her head is tilted up, and the background is a medium brown slightly darker than the girl’s hair. It was uploaded to the website on March 9^th, 2012.

The painting has a lot of different shades of brown. It seems kind of monotone. There aren’t any bright colors.  The attention is drawn to the skeleton on her face, but the rest of her body is also kind of prominent. None of the stuff stands out too much, because it’s only dull brown and white, and there’s not a lot of contrast.

I think the author is trying to depict anorexia. It has a silhouette of a pretty, slim girl. On the inside is a very unattractive skeleton. I think the skeleton stands out more because of how abnormal it looks. So, on the outside she may seem perfect, but on the inside, she has a serious problem that isn’t beautiful like she is on the outside.  The painting puts her eating disorder out in the open for all to see. Maybe the artist painted it with those colors to show that she’s not as happy as she seems.

I really like the painting. It’s creative and original. I like how she chose a graceful pose for the girl, but put in the skeleton too, to show both the elements, what everyone else sees, and what’s really on the inside. The dull colors were a good choice, since it’s a pretty dark subject. Bright colors are more of a positive thing. I love how much detail it has, and how the artist didn’t really add anything extra to it to make it look bad, she just made the skeleton visible. That made it seem more realistic. It’s really beautiful and emotional.