Been scarce a few days, a hectic week has meant little time for art or computers!

I "thought" (hahahahaha) I had finished the horse head apart from a few tweeks so posted for a structured critique and have realized it's far from finsihed and more in need of a complete overhaul.   One of the questions I asked the panel of critiquers was why it looked so cut out, after all I had copied the photo and it looked pretty mucht he same.  Boy, did I get the answer I needed! ...and on reading some other posts on WC the penny has dropped as to exactly how much I have got wrong (and I'm not only talking about the paintng I'm talking about my interpretation of the photo/picture/painitng)

It's looks cut and pasted because the edges are so sharp and our eyes (and therefore brains) read sharp edges as detail that needs to be looked at.   There are sharp edges all over this painting AND the area that should be the focal point (the eye) is lacking.

1) If I want the viewer to be concentraing on the horse head and not the background then I need to blur the edges of the background, and there are a lot of edges in that background!

2) The outline of the horse head needs to be softened and blurred, I suppose so it looks as though it receeding (?) and so that attention is not detracted from where I want the focal point to be (the eye)

3) I need to work on the focal point to be more defined, make it the most "real" looking piece of the painting, add some textural detail.  Probably a good idea to paint and draw a few eye studies so I can discover the best way to achieve this.

4) Check the value ranges by changing the image to greyscale.  This may be the most difficult for me as I am still finding the tonal ranges of colours difficult to identify (without using a computer to change them to greyscale and therefore identify them that way)  this I am guessing is something that will come with time and experience ...I have already figured out a few things so I'm sure it'll all come in time AND none of us ever stop learning!

My plan is to put the painting on the wall opposite my coffee break chair so that I can study from afar for a week or so and work out in my mind what changes I'm going to make and where.  I will also do some eye studies and read up some more on edges and focal points, then I will re attack!!! :)