Do you see what I don't see

Patricia Joyce · 10-18-2007, 09:44 AM

I am almost ready to call this one finished. It is a posthumous dog commission and I was sent a very little 4 x 6 color photo so you can imagine the struggle I had with flatness. I also wanted to work in charcoal because of her jacket which is one of those fuzzy things. So I thought the charcoal would help with that effect. My second challenge was that she was holding a HUGE ugly leash handle and I wanted it to look like she was hugging her dog. The leash was draped all over the dog, so I worked to take it out and insert a hand!! I don't know, I feel I have overworked everything.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. This is a small piece, the client did not want it any larger that what would fit in an 8 x 10" frame for her daughter's desk.

Thanks for looking
Patty

Patricia Joyce · 10-18-2007, 09:51 AM

The actual drawing is not quite so contrasty. I have a hard time photographing charcoal.

Steven Sweeney · 10-18-2007, 10:33 AM

At first glance, in terms of finish, I was going to say, "It's done. Leave it alone."

And that may still be true, though after looking a little longer, I find that I can't quite make out what's going on with the dog's ear, and it's a bit distracting. The dark form that crosses over the top and drops down to a pointed end is confusing me. Is that part of the ear, or a stray section of leash?

Perhaps posting even the "poor" reference photo would help clarify that.

Patricia Joyce · 10-18-2007, 10:55 AM

This bothered me also and it was very hard to read in the phot which sent me to the library to look at boxers Here is a cropped image of the ear. Tell me what you would do?

Thanks, Steven

Steven Sweeney · 10-18-2007, 11:07 AM

Okay, a tough one. A boxer that never had his/her ears trimmed to the "pointed" shape we usually associate with the breed.

Sorry, I'm not at a computer with image manipulation software, so I can't play around with this. I'm wondering if taking the value of the inner part of the ear way down, reducing the contrast with the outer, "furry" part, would help the form read better.

Patricia Joyce · 10-18-2007, 12:44 PM

Thanks, Steven, I will play with it a bit more. I have never seen an ear like this and now I know why the books I looked at were no help at all!