midnight rush
by redswede

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment now.

I really like the action of the scene - Cinderella in her white ballroom gown rushing to get away before the spell breaks. Her hair is all aflutter and she has gathered up her dress so that she can run better. We can see the one leg with the shoe - tis a shame the other is not visible so that we can see that the foot is bare. Cinderella is very prominent in the scene especially with the dynamic contrast of the white popping off the very dark backdrop. Because of the backdrop being dark and Cinderella's flight keeping a hold on my eye's focus, I almost missed the detail of the lost shoe in the back. I think the composition would be much stronger if her bare foot had been visible and mayhap have a bit more light to illuminate the lost shoe.

Girls and Boys Come Out to Play
by dahlin

Comment:
Voted earlier, coming back to comment.

The color and the hazy blur invoke a sense of nostalgia - of a fond memory that has past. I like the sense of motion captured in the composition for it gives the viewer the feel of participating in the running play. I , I know, I am being very picky about details here, but as great as this is a capture of a carefree and playful day, it doesn't fully represent the nursery rhyme 100%. I see two girls at play, but no boys as the title says it should represent. I wonder if it was possible to pull back on the crop to include a little boy running off to the far right (a separate shot that would be integrated into the scene if necessary taking advantage of the Expert Editing option)

Jumping Joan
by levyj413

Comment:
Voted earlier, bumping up a tick and coming back to comment.

I love the action sequence seen here in this composition. Capturing the action of the full leap is great. I really love the capture of joy on the girl's face as she first leaps off the dock. Tis a shame that it does not carry through to the next two sequence captures as that her arm then obscures the facial expressions.

Thumbelina
by Lydia

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

I like the sense of scale you give so that it makes it easier to think that the girl is as small as Thumbelina. I think the hummingbird makes the scene too busy - the dragonfly and fish are enough to complete the joyful day of waterskiing that Thumbelina is having. I wish the fish looked more real than they appear as that they look to be made of stone - one simple way to trick the eye would have been to take a photo of a fish eye and resize it to fit over the stone eyes of these fish. It would be one simple way to give it a more lifelike appearance. The dragonfly is a nice touch in that not only does it serve to give a sense of scale but it is vital to the action. It just doesn't look properly 'registered' with the image - perhaps it is because the lighting is different and/or that I can see the sharp details of the flower petals through the wings. Hmmm, mayhap if there was some motion blur to the wings and body to give us a sense of speed that the dragonfly must fly to pull Thumbelina it would appear to be more solidly afixed into the scene. I like the nice touch of the water ripples around the leaf and Thumbelina's shoes/feet. However, I do think that it needs to be more of a splashing wave so that it looks more like she is cutting across the surface of the water.

...and the dish ran away with the spoon
by klkitchens

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment now.

Great job on putting together "spoonman" - I like the hands and feet especially:-) The diagonal angle of the composition's subjects adds visual interest and holds the eye's attention - had it been straight on it would not have been as interesting. I do like how the dish is ready to 'exit stage right' for that invokes the idea of motion. The slight blur on the main subject's also give the viewer a sense of motion which plays into the action in the rhyme 'dish ran away with the spoon'. My one big critique on the composition as a whole is that I wish the backdrop was not so sparse and stark - it calls out for something in the backdrop.

How Does Your Garden Grow?
by unbreakable

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment now.

One thing that comes off loud & clear is that Mary has a very bold and colorful garden:-) The composition has a strong book illustration-like quality. It also invokes the idea of a quilt as well - and I think that that the patchwork quilt of color idea is what hurts the composition a bit. It does take a toll on the eyes to study it for any prolonged point of time. Mary with her flowers and the patchwork quilt of color compete on the 'page' as two separate images. If Mary & her flowers had more of a 'sewn on quality' onto the patchwork of color such that it becomes textured quilt that illustrates the nursery rhyme it would be a stronger composition.

Lizzie Borden
by MinsoPhoto

Comment:
Some fairytales are just Grimm. Sorry, stream of conscious going full steam and just had to be said:-) It has been a while since I heard the Lizzie Borden rhyme. Being honest, it doesn't fit into a nursery rhyme definition nor does it quite fit into fairytale even though the classic fairytales are quite grim - some downright nasty. If you take a stroll through Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors (12 books) you will understand what I mean. Lizzie Borden is more a local folklore poem with the sing song rhyme illustrating the murder. It is a rather dark subject...o.k. I am getting off track here aren't I?:-)

Back to the composition. The mood/lighting is dark and gritty which complements the subject matter. The child holding the hatchet is both disturbing and menacing when standing over the hand that is reaching up from the ground. The numbered count on the back wall is a direct nod to the '40 whacks' and 'gave her father 41'. I must admit I am rather a stickler for detail and I see you did pay attention to detail. If one adds up the count on the back wall and takes into account for the sets of five that are hidden behind 'Lizzie' it very could add up to 81 which again connects the visual composition to the rhyme.

So this is rather a very strong and well done composition illustrating a local folklore rhyme that is an exploration in the dark side of human nature. I honestly feel that this is just the wrong challenge for this art piece and that it would do far, far better in a challenge topic of Folklore, Human Nature, or heck, it would even do great in a Halloween challenge.

Hickory, Dickory, Dock ...
by GeneralE

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

I bumped this up a tick when I noticed the placement of the computer mouse in the clock. That is a nice clever little twist that I almost missed. I think the idea has potential to garner higher marks if 2 things were attended to to polish off the piece. First off, is that there is the distracting elements on the left side of the composition that just functions to draw focus off of your main subject. Had this grandfather clock been on a wall that spanned the full frame it would offer a clean backdrop for you subject to shine. Now I realize it would possibly be darn heavy and difficult for one to physically move it to a full wall so the other option that was open for you was to take advantage of the Expert Editing. It can be accomplished by taking an additional shot of a blank wall and then selecting the clock from this shot, feather the selection to avoid hard edges and transporting it to the shot with the blank wall. Lighting is also an element that needs a little work as that you have some high glare on the right panel of the glass and on the left top panel that obscures the numbers on the grandfather clock. Lighting needs to be more evenly balanced. Picky, yes, the devil is in the details. The computer mouse lacks any defining details for the highlights are so blown that it mostly appears as a white oblong shape. Had it not been for the 'wire' tail that is partially obscured behind the glare I might not have recognized what it was. If you can show off and capture all the great details it will garner higher marks for effort and attention to the details.

If Wishes were Horses
by Yo_Spiff

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

Now this is a treasured memory! You don't see much of the ol' coin-op riding horse. This definitely symbolizes childhood for many and lovely visual to complement the nursery rhyme. This could have been a good subject for the Vintage challenge that we had not too long ago. I like how you made it look like a faded photograph with the white border. Also there is some texture (overlay?) that adds to the feel of age - it projects the idea of a faded and fond memory. Nicely done (8).

It's raining, it's pouring
by Neat

Comment:
Voted earlier coming back to comment.

The graininess, the grey/sepia hue and the waterdrops paired with the man with the umbrella perfectly projects the mood/feel of a grey & wet day. It is the perfect visual for the nursery rhyme "It's raining, it's pouring". The PP helps to strongly project the mood here which one reason why it works so well for me. Nicely done (7)