The Selby public library has pieces from the students from the ringling

The Selby public library has pieces from the students from the ringling school of art and design. The piece that stood out the most was a portrait by senior, Marcello Dos Santos. It was a mixed media with oils piece, the oils being very evident. It was painted on a 5 foot high, 3 feet wide canvas that made the figure more life like, not quite life size. Life size would have taken away from the distant quality the figure had. The figure was done in a greyish-blue and hunched over with it’s knees to it’s chest, and it’s knuckles pressed against the ground to hold it’s balance. The figure’s side is shown looking up, which helps your eye travel up the picture plane. The pull of the figure is so strong because of the way the knukles are to the ground, the knees are pushing into the body and the head is pulling out and away from the body. Then the background is done in a maroon color that pulls your eye away from the figure but being such a deep color pushes you right back into the figure. Then the ground is done in a pea green color that is of corse the opposite of red, but close to the blue that balances out the back, middle, and foreground.
The actual detail of the figure is not shown, there is indication of muscle tone which is done in a smooth manner with the oils. Only emphasizing the muscle tone is what makes it such an eye-catching figure, besides the choice in color and technique. The sort of monotone color scheme is what makes the figure and actually whole piece have a distant quality.
The basic composition of a kneeling figure to the side of the picture plane is a common choice of study. But the smooth painting style, color scheme, and variations of light and dark in the muscle tone of the figure is what made this stand out from the rest.