Busy background, I really want this to work, please advise

Elizabeth Schott · 09-30-2002, 10:58 AM

In progress...I really love this photo of my daughter at Disney and would love to make it work. The background is so busy, I know it is distracting from the main subject. When I did the value sketch there were darks, grays and whites everywhere, so I have tried to adjust accordingly. Any advice, novice or expert, would really be appreciated.

This is the work in progress... my first time drawing on Wallis paper which I really like, I am starting to get guitar-playing callouses

Elizabeth Schott · 09-30-2002, 10:59 AM

If you notice, I have really left the dark mass to the left loose. I am not sure if I should crop it altogether. Here is the detail:

Elizabeth Schott · 09-30-2002, 11:02 AM

I really hope you can take one moment and comment. I know there are many folks on this site who are such pros they spend a lot of time on critiques of our work - I just hope they know how much we all appreciate it. But to those of you like me, your input is just as appreciated and important.

And finally this is my reference:

Elizabeth Schott · 09-30-2002, 11:04 AM

I thought I best point out - I did crop the bottom of the drawing too much. There is some of the dark blue/black incorporated in that area, that you see in the right side. Thanks!

Beth

Hanna Larsson · 09-30-2002, 11:10 AM

Elizabeth, this is going to be a wonderful portrait when you are finished. I admire people that have the patience to do complicated backgrounds. A couple of fast comments:
maybe the area between her eyes is too light; try to emphasize the roundness of the highlights in the hair.

Maybe there should be more of a shadow on the face near the golden "pole"?

In a hurry, got to go!

Mike McCarty · 09-30-2002, 11:21 AM

This looks terrific to me. Your daughter's face is great. I look forward to seeing this progress.

Mai Ly · 09-30-2002, 11:22 AM

Hi Elizabeth,

I like the painting very much, and the background too. Just a few suggestions, if you think the background is distracting, just remember that things are more blurry, less detailed, when farther away. Warmer colours appear closer and cooler colours for farther objects. The black figure on the right is a bit harsh. I am not sure if it black, but it appears so on my monitor. For darker figures, I don't use black, rather I would probably use violet, cool brown. For the red figures at the back, try to cool it down a bit with a cooler red tones, violet. The yellow posts at the back need to be toned down a bit...Yellow always seems to come forward because it is a warm colour.

I am no expert, but those are my suggestions. I like the painting overall. I have always wanted to painting something similar for my daughter, but have not had the opportunity to do so.

Mai

Mari DeRuntz · 09-30-2002, 11:24 AM

Hi Elizabeth,

Ambitious piece!

I like how you handled (abstracted) the background on the right. I think if you carried the same sort of treatment over to the closer background figure on the left, it would help isolate the

Carolyn Ortiz · 09-30-2002, 02:26 PM

This is GREAT! There's so much energy in this piece, I am really loving it! Especially the way you rendered the horse on the viewer's right, and your cute girl!

I'm probably repeating what other's have said, I think blurring the subjects in the background like the one you did on the pink horse would help, also making sure to blur them more as they recede into the backround. The furthest from the front is a little too crisp (the one in red with glasses), and the red may be too bold for such a background figure. Also the figure on that BEAUTIFULLY drawn white horse is probably too dark. Another rule for creating depth is that darker colors and high contrasting areas come foward while light colors recede. So the dark figure is really popping out right now. Other than that I think this is really well done!

Elizabeth Schott · 09-30-2002, 08:08 PM

Thank you all for so much great input. I tired to utilize all of your suggestions, so here's where we are!