update on piece pictured in a post this week
It wasn’t until I saw it on the computer screen when I posted the other day about print scale, that I noticed the problem with this piece:
Do you see it? The “sidewalk” fabric (as much as I like the fabric itself) is the wrong value. You know me, value, value, value. It is fine with the man’s pantlegs, but is too close in value to the dog’s legs, which means the dog sort of blends into the background. Not good.
So I took the piece apart (in hindsight I think it would have been easier to scrap it and start over) and started previewing alternatives to that middle gray tone of the sidewalk. Ideally, I need a fabric that is darker than the legs of the dog, but lighter than the pants and the dog’s back.
See the difference? I am not sure this is the one yet, I still want to play with it and see if I have something that works a little better. But now you can see the dog clearly defined against the background, but still allowing the dark areas to stand out as well.
How often the problem turns out to be VALUE, not color. If in doubt (and even sometimes when not in doubt) it helps to look at the image on a computer screen. For some reason, whatever isn’t working becomes immediately obvious. And don’t get so married to any one fabric that you can’t open yourself to make a change. So often, change is good!
Tags: value