Brodie and McGee Continued

One of the trials and tribulations of creating art is knowing when you have "finished" a painting. I am often guilty of "overworking" a piece.....continuing to work on a piece when I should have stopped. Even being aware of this tendency...I did not have that feeling of being finished with the painting of Brodie and McGee...but wasn't quite sure where to go with it. When this happens I have a number of strategies that often help. A good practice is to leave it and come back later...at least a day later. Sometimes I just put the piece where I can see it as I am going about my business. I will also look at a piece in a mirror. All of these are very useful and often result in my figuring out what the piece needs. But I also like to take a piece to friends and get their perspective and advice. That was what I decided to do with Brodie and McGee. My friend Toni is a retired art teacher and a wonderful artist who always has great insights and advice. As usual it was a great help. I knew I wasn't happy with the blanket the boys were laying on and she helped me to see how I could make the folds more realistic using stronger value changes. As we discussed the hard edges of the toplines of the boys that were bothering me I realized I needed to change the color so that the boys would merge with softer edges into the background. Toni had some suggestions about value changes for the background as well. Toni also pointed something out that I had totally missed. McGee's back needed to be repositioned to emerge from above his nose...not his ear. Bingo....a much improved piece!!! Now I feel finished! Here is the final piece, "The Jones Boys".