Three posts ago I described how I exaggerated the highlights on top of Zelda’s nose in order to make it stand out from the green background. To stand out from the background, the edges of a figure have to be either lighter or darker than the background.
When I sent the final jpg of the finished portrait to Diane for approval I asked if there was anything that needed to be adjusted. Diane said, “I think it looks amazing – but could you make one little tweak? The fur at the back part of her nose almost looks white. Can you darken that and her entire nose just a bit?”
Diane was right about Zelda’s nose being too light. When I looked at the reference photo I could see how that happened. In the photo, behind her nose (the end of her nose) is a very dark bush. So her nose looked light against that dark bush, and my eye saw it as being lighter than it should be.
To fix that, I had to darken it a lot, far past what was in the photo with light reflecting off the shiny skin on top of her nose. If I had made it accurate to the photo, it would have been the same value as the background: different colors (grey, and green) but with similar values — value refers to the lightness/darkness of a color. Zelda’s nose would disappear into the background. So I took it far into the darker values. Darker than the background color, so it stands out nicely.
(This shows Zelda's head only, from a full-body portrait.)
🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Light Green” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 17 x 20 inches.
"Zelda"
BISS TT GCHS CH Lookout Tawee v. Radiant CGC, WAC, Top Twenty contender 2018
Commissioned by Doberman breeder Susan Ramos as a gift to Zelda’s owner Diane Tennison.
From a photo by Susan Booth.
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