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Beth,
I kind of thought he had the tips of his fingers down in the fur. But it's not just that, on the underside of the hand the edge is very sharp as well as on the top. You just have to integrate the two different values where they meet. When one value meets another, and it's not just where different things/objects/stuff meet, there is transition, not abruptness. This can happen in the middle of person's cheek or arm. Any sharp line will distract (or rightfully attract) the eye of the viewer and can cause confusion and fatigue with the subject.
When a photographer takes a portrait picture of a person he selects a depth of field by use of the cameras lens aperture (f-stop). The decision is made to bring into focus the subject of the portrait and not the tree in the background. The choice is made and the picture is then about the person and not the tree through the use of "controlled edges." The blurring of the tree is just a way of producing (painting) soft edges of those things that are not central to the story that you have chosen to tell. This can also happen on the (almost) single plane of your painting. You manipulate edges to direct the viewer's primary gaze. If you don't control it, it becomes just a willy nilly visual affair.
In my opinion this is the greatest bang for your buck in painting. It is the easiest thing to execute and it has the greatest impact on your painting. Pick out the paintings that you like on this Forum and look at the edges.
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Mike McCarty
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