Tom and Jerry

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Simon Bland

Allan's suggestion was excellent and if I had to paint this over again I would definitely have him touch the dog with the back of his hand, but I think I have not left enough room in this picture to make it work.
Simon

Simon,
If you are going to use the touch of the backside of his hand, you could turn the body of the dog out into a position of two o

[Linda Brandon]

Simon, I'm glad you're getting such a warm welcome and such good advice! (And welcome!) You have nice brushwork here, a good feeling of the outdoors and the boy's face is well executed, nice job!

No one has addressed the problem I'm having with your painting, which is the size and proportions of the dog. If it's standing, its legs will have to be very long for the breed, even if the boy is sitting, and if the dog is sitting, what is it sitting on?

I like vignetting generally, I'm just visually... confused, I guess. It just feels like you are fudging two seperate photo resources, which is tricky to do.

Hope it doesn't sound like we are all jumping on you at once.

[Garth Parker]

Hi Simon,
What a beautifully soft and relaxing piece. I

[Simon Bland]

Linda - you found me out (although I actually used eight separate photos, not two).

The dog is a rat terrier which has stightly longer legs than a Jack Russell. The boy and dog are perched on a stone bench which I did not want to paint in the picture.

I've worked on the painting more this week and I think I'm ready to call it done: thanks to everyone's helpful comments it's a better realization of the picture I wanted to paint when I started working on it.

Simon

[John Reidy]

Very nicely done, Simon, and may I add my welcome to you as well.

You've accomplished a lot in this piece and you were wise to otain the resources you needed to produce such a challenging painting.

On my monitor it appears you toned down the values in the background which I think works well by creating more separation between it and the subject. If you're like me you've got butterflies on the delivery. You should be confident as this is a winner.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Simon, what an excellent solution! You have taken everyone's critiques, processed them with a generous degree of talent, expertise, and your own personal vision, and you have come up with a gem of a portrait. Congratulations!

Alex

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Simon, this is indeed a lively and joyful portrait, I am sure your clients will be very happy with it! Many compliments to the brilliant solutions, I think the changes you have made were worthwhile
Hope to see more from you soon
Ilaria