Editing

As I mentioned in the last blog, the right side of the painting appeared awkward to me. It was time for some editing before I continued. I knew if I didn't make some changes now, it would nag at me until I did.
First, I took out some of the greenery in the lower right and made a more prominent grassy background with a more orange-yellow color. The lower right horizontal branch appeared to be too long so I broke it. In the middle right, the angled branch swooped and I straightened it.

Hmm. Seems better, but I was not sure it was quite right.

Enter Thanksgiving. We had my good friends Selena and Matt Schopfer and artist Krystii Melaine and her husband Michael Cecil over to the house. After our feast, we headed up to the studio to take a peak at the leopard. Selena has seen many of my paintings in progress and I value her opinion. Krystii has a keen eye. The consensus was the broken branch was just not working. It drew the eye. The husbands added that it looked like the soft greenery was growing out of the leopard's tail. Not quite what I was going for!

Time for some work.
Here is the result. I may not be done with this right side, but at least it is not driving me nuts. I'll revisit it once I get a little further in the painting.