Thursday, March 15, 2012

Hooded Merganser (male) Painting in Pastel...revisited

Update: thanks to everyone who commented and suggested the painting was fine as it was. However, it was bugging me so much that I just had to change the reflection (the head in the water was competing with the rest  of the bird imo). While I was at it, decided to add more blue highlights in the lighter bands in the water...I think now I can finally call it done!-----

Although I love my large format flatbed scanner, I find there is always a need for color adjusting. I suspect this is due to the lamp casting a yellow hue on the painting as it scans across the glass. Nonetheless, it is a time consuming process and wish that the final image would match the actual painting more closely.  The image below is a good representation however some of the detail in the black areas are lost, mostly on the bird's face.
I will leave this painting for a few days and then look at it with fresh eyes to see if some tweaking is in order. I will most likely be reducing/reshaping  the width of the black outer border of the bird's crest in the reflection.  It seems to be too distracting for some reason.
Hooded Merganser (male)
Title;"Resplendent"
6"x12"
pastel on archival suede
Reference image for duck painting

6 comments:

  1. Ik vind hem heel mooi! Vooral de weerspiegeling in het water!

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  2. A winner!! It doesn't look like it needs tweaking! Beautifully painted, Colette!!

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  3. Looking at the painting with objective eyes, the black border on the duck's head is not distracting. It looks very natural to me. Good work.

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  4. vriendelijk dank je wel!

    Thank you Hilda and John...I did find the vegetation in the background gave me a hard time, they always seem to!

    I am very tempted to make the reflection different...

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  5. I agree with Hilda & John.

    Love it and the water reflections are superb.
    Nice to see you are using your 'Artistic License"

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