Wm.B.Hand • SHARPIE CREATURES!! -- (Apr.16th)

[William b. Hand]

Well, it's been over a year since I kept a sketchbook here and I'm happy to be giving it another go. This will be a combination of random sketchiness and stuff that's as finished and as polished as I can make it. I hope you find something that you like.

I'll start off with the painting that I just finished last night.

DEMON PORTRAIT ii: Airbrushed Acrylic on board : 20"x28" (50cm x 71cm)


DETAIL:

[Fellah.]

Very, very cool, mate

[chrishly]

Love it !!!

Can´t wait for more!

[Idiot Apathy]

You started up another sketchbook!?
I'm so proud *sniff sniff*

Super glad you did
Don't see anything wrong with posting other recent stuff, I'm sure people would like to see it.

Chairs!

[TheGnoll]

hell yeah i've been waiting for this.'ve always admired your dedication for the DGS and you skills in design and digital painting man, seriously, hope i see much more from you soon

keep sharing, i'll be back for more!

ciao

[William b. Hand]

Fellah. - Thanks, dude - I'm really glad you like it! Of all the artists on this site, you are the one I would most like to have respond positively to this pic, so that worked out pretty well.

chrishly - Thanks! I hope to oblige.

IdiotApathy - Hehe.. Thanks, man. Other stuffs, huh? Well, okay. Since you asked...

TheGnoll - Wow, what a nice reception! Thanks a bunch. I hope I don't disappoint.

So...
Here's a recent sketch that illustrates the most brilliant idea I've had in some while. (see if you agree)
GERIATRIC ALIEN SKETCHES : blue pencil on paper


My next most-recent painting...
RED-HAIRED SPHINX : 24" x 30" (61cm x 76cm): Airbrushed Acrylic on canvas board


... and a detail of that:

[asoir]

jeeeesus, that airbrushed portrait(s) is sublime.
that geriatric alien is fantastic, LOL.
so glad you made an sb again,
peace

[William b. Hand]

asoir - Thanks much! Glad you dig.

Here's a random drawing I did a little while ago in what is probably a doomed sketchbook. He's kinda wonky in ways, but I rather like him anyhow. I'd done a crappy job with markering colour onto him, so I altered that quite a bit in Photoshop to make the line-work more readable.

ETHER MONSTER i

[Diego]

The first one is amazing, looking foward to see more of your stuff.
Cheers

[sve]

I'm sitting and looking at this girl with blue eyes... I didn't know you were going to update so soon I wasn't prepared to see it and the more surprising this encounter was.
I thought I will write about the first image which although created this sensual, primitive, raw sensation in me, still is not so mind controlling and unexpected as this piece, the red-haired sphinx.

This is something else, it is not an image, it is some kind of mind controlling tool or voice or conversation... the rest of the images have 1/100000000 of the power of this one... I would call this image "Contact", because that what it is... a window, teleportation point. You enter through those eyes and live in them... I have so many associations with it, so many pleasant associations.

This image energizes and comforts in the same time, there are so many all kind of symbols and hints there, but they all work in certain direction, create certain "melody".

I would call this image "Nature" as well, because it has its taste; unpredictable, exciting and sexual. And delicate as well... So many straight to brains and heart coming symbols: innocent face, young full breasts with modest and provoking in the same time body language, eye to eye contact, persistent, non-human, leading, hypnotic eyes...
Green and rusty colors, slightly suffocating, subtle, comforting, wrapping around me, changing, devouring everything.
I look at these strange shapes on her skin and I don't know if it's continents and oceans or it is strange flowing pigments on her skin... But it feels nice and I'm not afraid of her.... She is not a friend, but she is a major intoxication, source of pleasure and maybe even a new knowledge. She promises unforgettable moments and takes a lot for that -your will and always gives back something - tips of your nerves trembling from excitement and pleasure.

I liked her relaxed and relaxing pose, I didn't see it right away and it was sudden discovery that she sits on this soft hill or sofa in the pose of a big lazy cat. I like those wings or huge caterpillars behind her and lizard and life happening in front of my eyes and independently from mine.

I like so much her innocent and shameless altogether gesture, covering her magnetic breasts half way...
I really don't want to talk about anything that could be changed in this image, it is a very powerful image, should be posted in FF section.
I think it will be loved, but who knows other people tastes.

I love it... I wish it was mine. Someone will certainly see those eyes and will hear her calling for him, this painting will go from you...

If I could add somehting I would make her lips just a bit more calling, trapping, seductive in a very extremely subtle way, they are a little bit flat and subdued.. I would put a little of moisture on her lips, make them sweeter, like a sweet poison. I know you don't want to revert your viewer from her eyes, but still, something to make her lips not domineering in picture at all , but fresh and desirable would add some more magic, IMO.

But it is not that important
I think, she controls minds, I don't know if she is good or bad, but she delivers a lot of what she promises and whatever she takes is worth it.

-------------------
The first image...
I like the subtle manner to talk through colors and delicate transition of them, but this piece is avoiding contact with me. I look at it like something that happened many, many centuries ago... we will never cross our roads.
I look at it as some strange engraving on an ancient wall or strange drawing found finally. Some unreadable message from people who lived many years before me.
If talking about technical site I would say that although those soft dissolving silhouettes and outlines have a strange effect on me combined with other opposite symbols (hostile grimace, horns, muscles)... still my eyes want to stay on something, some sharp edges, some contrast and they don't' have this, they just slide through the whole image without stops and fall down the page...

That's what I think, Will. All the best to you and thank you for kindness and special sweet attention you gave to me today.
I think you are an awesome artist judging from this mind changing girl in the post before last one... I wish I could've created her...
I feel spasm in my throat when I looked at her.. true emotion.

[sve]

She is beautiful, Will. I'm looking at her again... Magic painting, of a huge charm.
I'm so silly. I'm getting tamed by images so deeply.

heh, just noticed the alien with a walking device. heheh, that's funny.

[Ragathol]

Fabulous. The demon is amazing, and the sphinx oddly alluring. Love the lineart sketches as well, the little "this just passed by" remark made my day.. or well, night.

[sve]

Yep, really charismatic painting of the red head... You know if you post this image in a bigger size to fill the whole screen, well at least bigger than it is now, I will probably have triple enjoyment from this painting... I like how our faces and eyes lined up against each other and how serious and calm she is. She doesn't blink. I can't do that. Is it OK that I write about the same painting many times? you know I like to come back to old images... they are better than new ones. Always exciting once I felt their loveliness.

[Anid Maro]

Yep, really charismatic painting of the red head... You know if you post this image in a bigger size to fill the whole screen, well at least bigger than it is now, I will probably have triple enjoyment from this painting... I like how our faces and eyes lined up against each other and how serious and calm she is. She doesn't blink. I can't do that. Is it OK that I write about the same painting many times? you know I like to come back to old images... they are better than new ones. Always exciting once I felt their loveliness.

Heh, I think you've got a fan William.

Not that the praise is undeserved, it really is a very nice piece. The texturing makes it very enjoyable to look at while her eyes just draw you in. It has a lot going on while being very centered. Well done indeed.

[AztcFireFlower]

Love the aged aliens.

The sphinx is an eye trap. Draws one in for a long enjoyable time. Textures are lovely.

[d00dle]

oh, man god. u people r super talented. the top one is nothing like digital painting at all. I wonder how you even do that. Yeah, really like all of your paintings. I hope u don't mind if I save em on my desktop as reference.

[William b. Hand]

Diego - Thanks! Glad you like that.

sve - My goodness... How do I begin to respond to such wonderfully articulated appreciation? ...Especially when I'm as tired as I am... Well, the answer is: I don't. Thank you so much. Please feel free to comment as often as you like about whatever you like here. It just makes me want to paint more, you know. As to your crit about the mouth... Yeah, I actually thought about that and considered doing exactly what you suggest, but I was unable to really visualize it at the time, and did not trust my airbrush to behave. Between those two concerns, I decided I would just leave well-enough alone and hoped it wouldn't actively detract from the image. I still feel the same, although I agree with you. Next time! And as to your desire for a larger pic... I will accommodate you soon. It's thrilling to learn that a painting has had such a deep effect on someone, and I appreciate the energy and thought that you put into eloquating your feelings about it. Very curious reaction to the Demon, too... Good stuff, sve.

Ragathol - Thank you! I'm glad you're digging the variety here.

Anid Maro - Thanks!

AztecFireFlower - Gracias! I hope you enjoy further installments!

d00dle - Glad you enjoy! I've been really enjoying getting back into airbrushing. And, no, I don't mind if you save 'em to your desktop (just don't sell or co-opt or anything ). I've got a huge "inspiration" folder, myself.

SO.

I've been fumbling around with this painting for the last week.
I'm afraid I didn't use colour (beyond the yellow) this time around, but NEXT one... There're a number of things that're wonky about it, but I'm satisfied that it finally came together in the way that it did.
See whatchya think...

THE GREETERS : 20"x30" (50cm x 76cm) : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board


DETAIL A


DETAIL B

[Shinryu]

Really nice thread man, "DEMON PORTRAIT ii" and "THE GREETERS" are my favourites, great stuff.

cheers

[sve]

Hello, William...Yes, I can tell somehow that you are tired, not actually in your posts or words you chose, but in your paintings.
And not exactly physically tired, but more like you want comfort, restoration. And you want deepness and honesty. i think that that because of direct eye to eye look in some of characters which you apparently love yourself, meaning they are your dreams.
I think you want a comfort because of so many round forms in your paintings.
They have the same effect on me, they comfort me, pat me, slide a in smooth movement off me. Your paintings don't confront, they smooth things around them, they want silence and attention.

I think about you not being confrontational because of the colors too, they are very often of colors of past, so to speak, events that already happened and which can't be a source of anything really catastrophic anymore... It 's your favorite brown. Images look like centuries lie between them and me and like time already started its work on them, like waves in ocean smooth all sharp edges, preparing to oblivion.

I think the manner in which your paint is telling too... you like softness and delicate and indefinite quality of this airbrush, it calms your nerves. The smooth surface of your paintings tells me the same.

If I really did something to make you want to paint, it is striking. I'm honored.

I imagine you reading my words to you now and I feel a bit shy and I feel a responsibility to be as honest as possible and not to say anything to please or charm. To be truthful... It is hard in a way, I have tendency to fantasize about my associations and memories and I don't know how much reality in it and how much fantasy. And more of it, I feel what you might like and I'm a people pleaser.
I do feel what I write, but it is coming to you in words... so there is an editing in it of course in some way.

I'll start from the painting you didn't post, it is in your blog, it named ANTOINE.

It has a strong communication with me... What I feel looking at this profile is a bit terrifying, and intriguing and charming as well. It scares me a bit too and provokes my curiosity...

Profile's painting like this, static but with an expectation that it will turn over any minute makes me feel threatened a bit... And he has such a fine sly look about him. There is something crazy about his face, he is sick, but in the same there is some gentleness and sweetness, especially somewhere in the area between his eyebrows and in the thin skin of his eyelids, something fragile, vulnerable.

I have a very inevitable association with the novel
'Perfume" by Patrick Süskind. You probably read it, it is a top notch literature, but if you didn't I would suggest to look at it... You painted a character form this novel in my opinion, the criminal person with a beautiful rare talent.
This painting doesn't have time between me and him... it is happening now and here and that's why I feel scared and threatened.

And not the many mechanical details you used as details of this face and costume scare me, but his eyes and quiet horror of his next action. His eye is alive, and dynamic surrounded by static gruesome rest. And his tiny sharp lips and nose, like a beak and an attentive ear... He spies on me, searching for me weakness and he is so smart and cunning. But strangely enough I feel a compassion to him as well. he looks like deformed soul. Or maybe it is a fine manipulation from his side. He is a nervous impressionable fine actor.

I think this painting is perfect, I don't want anything added or removed from it... it is very warm despite the creepy feeling it gives me... mechanical design makes me think about centuries of science mixed with superstitions, synthesis of Homunculus, searching for the philosophical stone to create gold from a lead, with ideas of mice and rats being born from garbage...
I like colors in this painting and i like amount of details in it, not overloading, well thought out in a good strict taste, IMO. Great placement on canvas, composition.

I would call this painting be the name of the character form the novel I mentioned, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille or I would called it Deformed.

Now about your recent update, I look at it as a humorous image... it has a curious mix of fantasy and real life event, associations from it... Those bored, gruesome greeters... hehe. Judging from their look I expect a brick to fall on my head in the next step. Heh, yep, don't put honest people to sell you something you don't want...They'll spoil the entire fun. They don't have this sportsman quality to have their own way in things.
I wish you used colors in this one. As I said I have a strong association with past when I look at this fading brown... And because of that I feel calmed and not present in the events you show me, your viewer, I feel just as an passive observer.
I'm not sure about how you use sharp marks in this painting, my eyes mostly on the front figure, the bird and on the horizon on the lightest value of the sky and they are very often stop on the sharp details of little brick border in the front of the painting... and it is not that informative to make me look at it for so long, I think
Looks like soon going out of business store or something .

That's all... Bye..

[TheGnoll]

man, that a very cool technique indeed, i'd love to know how it actually works nice smooth look.VEry original subjects and approch to them too...i'd love to see sketches and doodles too, no need to post just finished work here

keep sharing!

ciao

...I feel like a retard posting this comment after sve

[William b. Hand]

Shinryu - Thank you! Glad you are digging these monochromatic ones .

sve - Yet again, a deliciously long and delightfully frank reply from you that I will only have the wherewithall to respond to in the briefest of terms, alas. I think your observations about my tiredness, the desire for comfort, and the non-confrontational nature of these entities, are all pretty savvy. And, again, there is a definitive sense of inspiration that I've received from reading your responses, yes. Something about them... like birds off the bow, letting me know that I am approaching land... Or that I am on the right path, or something.
... Regarding "ANTOINE", I must relate to you that back when I did that painting, I felt unsure about it's level of finish, and I didn't find anyone who thought it especially interesting as it was. Shortly after posting that pic on my blog, I went back into it and made a number of disastrous errors that seemed would be the ruin of it. Knowing that I still had that posted online, and knowing that I had doomed a painting I had been fond of (despite my misgivings), led to a certain amount of shame for me. Reading what you recently wrote about it furthered my sense of guilt ("I think this painting is perfect, I don't want anything added or removed from it...").

Today I managed to pull it back from oblivion, and I'm happy with the result, but I know that it is no longer the same painting, nor will it draw forth quite the same feelings. So, I offer my apologies, Sveta. I read "Perfume" a very long time ago, and have an extremely limited recollection of it, but I do remember enjoying things about it. I'm so poorly read, that your reference to a book that I actually finished is surprising.

I agree with you about THE GREETERS... In fact, I was planning on painting something entirely different from what that turned out to be, and by the time I realized how much it cried out for colour, I was far too deep into it. Also, the bricks... yes, they became quite the problem. Thanks again, Sveta. I hope you are always able to respond as you feel want to do. Hm... I guess I had more wherewithall to respond than I thought I did.

TheGnoll - Thank you! It's nice to hear about interest in my technique or approach. Although I'm trying to explore and utilize the time-saving effects of pre-painting sketches, up to this point I have not done any for any of these pics. I just usually feel my way through a painting, you see. I am trying to get some sketches worked out for use as guides, though, so maybe I'll be able to post such things soon...

Alright, without further a-do...
LINK TO EARLIER VERSION

Maybe I should re-name it "THE CLOWN"... ?

"ANTOINE" : Airbrushed Acrylic on board : 32"x40" (81cm x 101cm)

[sve]

Hello, Will... Thank you so much again and again for such a warm welcome and so much kindness to my comments. . very pleasant feeling, you know. I feel like I was given keys from all doors, no fences and I can step in and go wander around freely in enchanting forest of William Hand's world. Or is it valley? It's probably a valley.

You got rhythm here.

"...Something about them...
like birds off the bow,
letting me know
I'm almost touching the glow.

That I am approaching the land
where plays musics old band
and every thing's grand
but time slips like a sand...

Still I sit on the rock
and watch foxes in frock
dancing slow minuet
deaf from an off-tune clarinet...''

I'm going wild in your book, you know, in no one's book I would write the things I'm writing in yours . because I feel it's OK to do.
When I'm tired from wandering in your valley you will allow me to sit in your squeaky chair with my feet off floor and cover me with an old orange blanket weaved from camel hair and give me a huge cup of smoking coffee. And I have realistic hopes for a tartlet. And that's a human happiness for me .

OK...
I want to tell you one more funny thing. I had one more association with your "ANTOINE" piece. I didn't write it down because I don't remember the name of a novel and the writer... But it was a fantasy novel about some strange space adventurers.
One of the characters was a young girl and her many friends, and another was a strange Clown, mute, very thin, with a huge expressive eyes... Girl heard sometimes voices talking to her and trying to convince her in things in which she didn't want to believe... The travelers go from one disaster to another... The girl felt a compassion to the strange, homeless, lonely Clown, or Joker, but no one from her friends liked him... And with time it's started to get obvious that all catastrophes were coincided with presence of this Clown.
In the end it started to be clear for everyone that the huge, mysterious, destroying force was always near them, looking harmless, friendly, but being the most active hostile enemy, entering their minds effortlessly and manipulating them... He was very charming, made their victims to feel a sympathy to him. Weak on the first sight but armed with a talent to read thoughts and change them.
Great story, I don't remember where I read it, it was a long time ago, probably 12 years ago.

So... yes, He is a clown. I agree... When to think about it this story is never boring, it is emerging from time to time, the image of clown who makes people scared ... Rigoletto, Hamlet with skull in his hands:" Poor Yorick", election of King of Fools in "Notre-Dame de Paris" by Victor Hugo, Quasimodo becoming the King and Joke for crowd, Ice house built to perform a wedding of two fallen from grace.
OK, not sure if it is interesting theme.

Yes, the painting changed... it is a different person now... I don't feel threatened anymore, and he doesn't look unpredictable and crazy,,, he looks more sympathetic now, much softer.
The most global changes is that you made his eye sit deeper and it removed the nervous unsettled feeling from his face. Before that his eye was watching me and conspiring on me, now his eye is turned inside, he is watching, listening himself... You made his lips with a new wrinkle on a corner like a wrinkle from a smile, it relaxed his features a lot and removed tension. Before the eyes were the sharpest detail and wherever my glance was before it always returned to the strange restless eye of his... now my eyes have a lot more to look and his eye is not the main priority.
He looks sad and soft now, sweet actually and romantic.
Before his strange, unnerving essence was a priority, now it's his soft face surrounded by sharp metal mechanisms, he looks much more vulnerable now.
He has my full compassion now... before the emotion was much more complex... Still I love this image. Don't feel a quilt.. Emotions are tricky things, aren't they? it is interesting how they change from image getting wider in size or from few shadows on his eye lids...
Bye, Will... all the best to you...

[William b. Hand]

sve - "..Still I sit on the rock and watch foxes in frock.."
I am not familiar with the book that you describe about the strange clown, but I like the reference and the parallel to this pic even as it changed. It's so interesting to me how differently people are affected by the same things... A friend of mine said she found the new eye to be very disturbing because of the separation from the socket area, but my feeling echoes your own. The current effect is much closer to my original intent, as I always meant for him to be benevolent. I'm glad you still like him.

Here is my latest painting, completed tonight.
It was done very much with Z.Beksiñski in mind, though nowhere near his level of sophistication. It's rather new for me in that I made a small, very rough, sketch that I used as the inspiration for the full painting. I have issues with it here and there, of course, but I think it fulfills its purpose, and I'm satisfied.

I'm afraid I had a tough time getting a decent photo (as usual), but I think you get the idea. I'll try for a better shot with tomorrow's sunlight.

BRAMBLE MAN : 20"x30" (50cm x 75cm) : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board

[DennisCurrie]

Amazing work. Yopu make me want to pick up my liner brush again and start painting sweet, fine details. Incredible sense of atmosphere. Would love to see more.
Alas, I do not have the patience you seem to have. I must therefore utilize a more painterly approach. I admire those who can spend so much time on one piece.

[Dile_]

Wow, never saw any artwork by you until now.. I'm really glad I found this stuff, as Dennis said, Amazing work!
I have nothing good to add really haha, the only thing i can think of is to click the subscription button ^^

-Dile

[Spats]

That's a beautiful technique - lovely depth in "the greeters".

[TheGnoll]

creepy n really fascinating stuff as usual man, i bet these must look sooo nice in real life and original size
nice to chat with ya the other day man, we should do it again

btw, do you know Beksinski?

keep sharing,
ciao!

[William b. Hand]

DennisCurrie - Thanks! Patience, huh? Well, yeah I suppose sometimes it takes that. Frankly, I think I need to cultivate even greater patience in my approaches, hehe. Glad you like it!

Dile_ - Thank you! Yeah, I haven't posted so much as I might've over the years... Thanks for subscribing!

Spats - Glad you like the depth in GREETERS... I'm trying to push into doing more of that sort of thing. Cheers!

TheGnoll - Thanks! As to how they look in person, hopefully they look better. So much depends on the lighting, actually. In sunlight, they really seem to pop, but in the bar... I don't yet know. I'll find out soon enough, I reckon. (the 29th) To your question do I know Beksiñski personally... Nope. I'm sure he's still living in Poland, and I've had no contact with him yet.

Okey dokey...

Here's another that's essentially monochromatic in spirit. See how it hits ya.

"DARK HORSE LISTENS TO THE BEE" : Airbrushed Acrylic on Board : 20"x30"


EYE DETAIL


BEE DETAIL

[William b. Hand]

Thought I'd post a sketchbook page from a few days ago, too...

TALL WEEVIL SKETCH

[sve]

Hello... You have strange characters in your mind, I think... I wonder about that... They are very vulnerable and there is not feeling of home in your pictures and but a lot of longing, a lot of it. I see insanity in many of them (not yours, but in the told story, in chosen themes) and pain. Most of them are outcasts with no apparent threat to them, but they are on the run and they feel very restless, very worrisome. And those sadness and longing are combined with a calm manner to tell the story, no sharp angles or layers of thick frozen bulk of paint to carry strong aggressive signs, everything is calm and silent... it feels like it is happening in silenced environment in your pictures...

I liked the girl deer more than man in torn wool sweater, although I like some things in the painting too. I liked this sweater . it tells me a story. Looking at its shamelessly sticking in all directions threads, at its pitiful appearance I appreciate beauty of it in the same time... its look is appealing to me and in the same time I feel insanity in this. I like this improvised lace, swirls, mild transitions of yellow and brown, the feeling of wool and burlap... I don't see the face of the man, but I think about him as a crazy, aggressively crazy, very miserable man, who isn't aware of his tragic state, so lost his mind is. This sweater is his only possession, his imitation of home, the only source of warmth for him. But he doesn't give one thought about it. I think his mind is working madly all the time, thoughts are jumping like fleas with an insane speed, never stay on something definite for long... his brains are burning out and destroying themselves, but producing zero... so much efforts and in the end...a lot of energy spent without any result in indifferent vacuum...

So I like the tilted bald head, the skinny arms and hands and I especially like the very expressive sweater... it is actually a man who carries his house on his back all the time... One of the biggest fear, btw. to end up like this.

I like the composition, and placement of the main shape across the page...

What I'm not sure about is his restrained legs... I kind of like it, because it is a contrast to the mad energy from the figure of the man, but in the same time I don't like it because it is an unexpected stop, a barrier to the constant motion in the picture... I follow the motion in his figure, the wave he creates with his body and then I see his static legs and I sort of lose the rhythm and might flip over mentally so to speak.

You don't need to follow my wishes but I think it would be better to create some source of his worries around him as well, some sort of dust behind him, little tornado chasing him or repeating his crazy senseless moves...But there is none right now in the picture, the man is alone in his insanity, there is no reason for him to escape from anything, nothing pursuits him and it makes the picture even more painful and hopeless for anything healing, comfort.
I understand why you didn't create any outside commotion though.. maybe you are right. The man is his own worst enemy, it is a self destruction.

Girl and her bee...
Strange picture as well and I feel the same malfunctioning creature in it... I think about this girl when I look at her face... she is not miserable and she is not happy, at least she is not aware of it,,, she doesn't focus on one thought, she is wandering in her mind like in the endless journey... I don't know... there is a a lot emotions, feeling on her face, but it is subconscious. I think it is a reaction on the subjects and effects surrounding her (like a wind or cold or noise or even her buddy bee) but she isn't aware of them in the next minute... she lives like in an eternal fog, with some objects reappearing from the cloudiness for a minute and falling back into it.
I adore her beautiful stylized little ear, so feminine and accurate charming shape, like a lovely shell. I like her stylized eyes, they carry the unpleasant insanity as well, but it is a beautiful stylization, like they are painted on her face, on the surface... I like her cheek less face and some refinement in her delicate features... she has noble features, the face of the mad Ophelia (and btw I would say the man in the torn sweater reminds me story of the King Lear).. Overall those updates reminds me Shakespeare's intensity in feelings and in chosen themes.

Bee is the only one who is sane and in harmony with itself, I think... There is probably response from the girl to friendliness and constant companionship of the bee, but it is scarce and hardly fulfilling as a response from an autistic person. It is probably enough for a bee...
This picture is not about happiness in my opinion, it is about a short break from darkness, girl's eyes and red sky don't make me be calm and hopeful...
Technically I'm a bit worry about so many big monotone shapes in your painting... you are risking to lose attention of your viewer... Girl's expressive eyes and face don't let to happen...

But on the other hand I like the laconic language in the story telling and the suggestive manner for viewer to fill the rest and just hints on the foreshortening of girls pose... that's all... bye.