Music night

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Comment by Xiao Li on April 25, 2017 at 12:52

Thank you Jon! Those are very good suggestions.

Comment by Jon Main on April 25, 2017 at 4:31

OK - what I feel is that you need to do (to enhance a nice peice - nothing wrong with it!!!) is to generally soften all the edges in the bottom section and render it all a bit more indistinct.

You could go for a bit of a spotlight effect à La Richard on the guys' heads, torsos and instruments and blur everthing a bit/tone it down where it gets to the edge of the canvas - keep our eyes on the center of interest + add a bit pf mystery :) 

James Gurney recently had a post on blocking/dodging the corners and Karin Wells once siad that she sometimes painted an oval 'frame' on the canvas/board to remind her to fade out towards the edges. Of course, I forget to do all this in my own paintings!!!!!!

Comment by Xiao Li on April 24, 2017 at 13:09

Hi Jon, thank you for your comment. I can see what you mean. I was thinking the table and the chair can signify the restaurant setting and fill up the empty corner, but without it may enhance the configuration. One thing I don't want to do is to chop off their feet so I have to think of something to put there. An empty corner would not fit in the scene. Any suggestions?

Comment by Jon Main on April 23, 2017 at 20:03

Hi, Xiao - I agree with Jessica - nice narrative aspect . I wonder if zooming in more/cropping closer wouldn't have helped strenghten the composition - I feel the bottom right hand corner doesn't add anything

Comment by Xiao Li on April 23, 2017 at 17:29

Thank you very much Jessica!

Comment by Jessica Futerman on April 23, 2017 at 2:33

Nice painting - interesting story-telling in this one, Xiao!  Looks like you caught a fun moment!