“Empty” by Aoiro_No_Ame

Beautiful. Before you get a chance to realize you’re staring you’ve been glued to the screen for minutes. It really wouldn’t have mattered which of Aoiro’s pieces I picked, I could still wax on for days about the attention to detail and the great deal of symbolism in these pieces. This is another one of those times where I realize just how unqualified I am for this job. Clearly a lot of thought was put into what this piece represents but I can’t really say with any confidence that I understand the magic trick. Turns out this website, and really all of my work is about failing forward, so allow me to fail to express what this piece means to me as well as I can.

The sheer elegance of this piece, conveyed in both some big and tiny ways is the main reason I settled on this illustration. Somehow this work captures a looseness that’s fairly uncommon in digital art, while simultaneously having a perfection and rhythm to it as if it wasn’t sculpted or drawn, but uncovered by a careful hand. Truthfully, if I could have the mastery over line and forms of a single artist, at this moment it would have to be Aoiro_No_Ame. Since you’ve the piece right in front of you, I probably don’t need to say much about the sheer flow in this work. I sincerely have no idea how Aoiro creates these breathtaking strokes. This is one of the only pieces where I have no silent complaints or notice some tiny mistake.

Truly, there is too much to say about this work. The allocation of detail is really just right. I don’t find myself wanting more or less, the tiny moments only enhance and don’t distract from the overall impact of the piece. I think the limited color palette forces the artist to speak to you in very subtle ways, which Aoiro seems to have quite a mastery of. While most of the canvas and the model is some shade of pale white or grey, there are the smallest flicks of red, pink and sort of slight blue and green undertone to bring a splash of warmth. The beautiful contrast of the deep red highlights also really do a lot to bring additional interest and dynamism to an otherwise muted color selection.

I can’t speak much to the symbolism. It feels very personal and like a quiet expression of what it means to be a vessel or empty to the artist. What really speaks to me are the wonderful swirls, shapes and textures that adorn the life within the model. I imagine the outgrowths being something like a symbiotic relationship with someone deceased in an underwater setting, as if the variance and richness of life is born from the recycling after death. I get the message that you become a vessel for beauty when there is space inside you to allow it. Dead or alive, life is born in the space left behind.

Ten minutes after I post this I’ll be dissatisfied with what I didn’t notice or say, but for now I feel content with what I’ve learned from this piece. Thanks for letting me analyze your work Aoiro, I really appreciate ya. Looks like I’m gonna need to ask for some tutelage on how I can bring a piece of Aoiro’s wonderful style into my own. If you’ve found this article moving, informative or valuable in some way please leave a comment and let me know what your thoughts are, both for myself and the artist and please, give Aoiro_No_Ame some much deserved study.

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