[Marta Prime]

I ran across an art auction at one of our local hotels this weekend. The paintings were wonderful re-creations of many famous paintings. I spent a lot of time examining them up close. Most were quite large and sitting on the floor so I could really see them well. I was really noticing how they handled the edges on these....so soft, and they just melted into the background. I do Ok on edges within the painting, where the halftones meet, etc, but I would like my outer edges to be softer, especially when a dark background is used. I see a lot of talk about making edges soft, but no technique that is devulged to make this happen. When I try to soften edges with thinner, they bleed into the dark background. Right now it is trial and error to get the edges right. Anyone care to elaborate on how they do this? I would really appreciate information on this.