Tall, dark and handsome
 

This is Clueless the Horse (he's a 20" x 24" acrylic). I recently finished this commission and his owner seemed genuinely please with him. However, I have 2 questions I thought this Forum could help me with. First, if a source photo has an incredibly fuzzy and bland background (as my painting denotes), is it an artistic no-no to "create" a more interesting background? And second, do most artists use a professional photographer to take pictures of the final product for the artist's portfolio? As you can see, my picture-taking isn't what is should be. Thanks for any ideas you may have!

Administrator's note : see http://forum.portraitartist.com/foru...?s=&forumid=46 for information of photographing your paintings.

Photographing
 

Hi Carrie,

I love your work. You really got the details right and the attitude. I do horses, too. But there's a Forum topic called photographing your paintings just above Critiques and these are great for learning to do your own photos.

Tammy

Great work, Carrie!

Drawing horses was always one of my favorite past-times as a child. I think you've really captured him. He looks like he's about to nuzzle you for an apple. Oh, and his name just kills me! Very nice!

Susan

Carrie,

I'll give you my two bits (that's horse talk) ...

I think you have the license to create whatever background you want. Assuming that you haven't broken some covenant with the client. As far as the horse painting above I think the background is appropriate and leaves the focus on the subject.

My own opinion is that you can get yourself into a little bit of trouble when you stray too far from the source. The composition had some appeal to you. That appeal can be a delicate balance of compositional elements. I sometimes use Photoshop to do "what if's" with compositon and color. It can give you a good "heads up" with no harm and no foul.

Thanks, Lon!

Tammy, thanks for pointing out the forum topic concerning photography. The good news? It's going to prove to be very useful in both photographing my completed projects and in taking pics of live subjects! The bad news? Looks like I'll be spending a lot more than just time in this endeavor. $$$