making changes, continued
This is where we were yesterday, when I left it to come back and look at it fresh to see what jumped out at me as being wrong:
On looking at it fresh two things jumped out as being problems that needed to be addressed:
1. although I like the color and the pattern of the hair, it is not dark enough in value. It really needs to be a deep dark halo around the face. I can do this just around the face and still leave some of the textural fabric there;
2. if the hair around the face is darkened, the eyes must be as well. The hair cannot be darker than the eyes or the eyes will lose their drama. Also, in looking at the eye on the light side of the face, it needs to be better defined.
The changes from here on are subtle, but I think they make a difference. It is important to look at the little details once the big pieces are set. Here you can see the darkened hair at the top of her head, the darkened and better defined eyes. In looking at it now on the screen, I can see that the defined eye on the light side needs to be just a bit rounder at the bottom, which I will do before everything is set in stone.
Right now there is no background, and I like the lightness on that side, but think it looks too balanced with the white side of the face. The whole composition here is asymetrical, so balancing the white doesn’t cut it.
Here is that golden fabric as the background. I love the painterly quality of this fabric, and the color lightens this side of the face, but I want to look at other options before I make a decision.
Here the same fabric is used so that the back is what shows. I still have that painterly quality, but with a lighter value. This may be better, but I have more to look at.
This goes in a different direction, the lighter magenta fabric will make the magenta in the face more prominent, and may help to make the background receed…
Here I have tried a bright blue silk, in the hopes that it will play nicely with the blues and still provide some contrast between the foreground and the background. I think I can eliminate this one from consideration right away, as the blue becomes much too vibrant and therefore much too important.
It is always helpful to take digital pictures of your options and look at them on the computer screen. Here are four, let’s discuss them one at a time:
1. The golden background. As much as I love this fabric, here it doesn’t do anything for me. It just looks like an inconsistent and irrelevant choice which adds nothing.
2. The golden fabric used on the wrong side. I like this one, it is light (which I liked when there was no background) but not as light as the white side of the face, leaving some dimension and contrast. It also retains the nice painterly quality, although not quite as much as the right side. This is a contender.
3. The magenta fabric. This was a nice idea, and I like this as a background fabric, but now the magenta in the face becomes so prominent that it looks like a scar or a tatoo and is distracting. So this one is also out.
4. The blue silk. I like the fact that it has a shine, but the color is all wrong. It doesn’t play nicely with the other blues in the face and makes the magenta in the face look disturbing.
For now, I think I like the lighter golden background, but am not sure. But here is when every little detail counts, so I need to make the following adjustments:
1. round that eye on the bottom so it is a more graceful shape
2. bring some of the very dark around the bottom of the chin to break up so much of that cross-hatch fabric.
3. make the line of the chin more graceful
4. fill in that funny little white valley that extends below the eye on the lighter side of the face.
5. see what happens if I make the eyebrows darker, the same value as the eyes themselves.
tomorrow…..
Tags: choosing backgrounds, evaluating, making changes, small changes
