smudgepainter

Ray smudged this wonderful Fred James portrait some weeks ago.
Here's my version of it.



C&C please.

-- Marty

Marty, I think it would look more "painterly" if the clothing were smudged more, and the edges softened a bit. The background looks great! Maybe "painterly" was not the look you were going for, if so ignore the comment!

Nice work Marty especially with the freckles ! ! ! !
Palms

Thank you both for your kind comments.

Jo, I wasn't trying for any particular look. I just wanted to make a visually pleasing smudge painting that was a fair interpretation of the original photo. I concentrated on the eyes and lips, the hair, fingernails (cleaned and shaped them) and the freckles. I smudged the clothing -- perhaps not enough. And I agree that the subject's edges could be softer.

Palms, I worked hard to get the freckles to the condition you now see them in. There was a LOT of trial and error. Could have gone further, but I cut it off when I got to this point, which I considered to be at least "decent." Thanks for all your "!!!!!'s"

Best,
-- Marty

Marty, the face and hair look great but i think its very hard to get the right look with a very tricky dress like that.

You done a good job but there is room for improvment and i bet you learned a lot from smudging it, not one i would have taken on...

Keep up the good work.

Ronnie.

I like how you retained the freckles....not easy to do but you did a great job.

Best wishes

Ray

Thanks for your comments, Ronnie. There's always room for improvement. I smudged the clothing but maybe not enough, although the result on the velvet seemed pretty good -- at least to my (somewhat prejudiced) eye.

Best,
-- Marty

About the freckles. Not to parse words Ray, but I didn't exactly "retain" them (fom the original). I smudged them out as part of the overall smudging effort. Then I painted freckles on a new blank layer and merged them onto the smudged face.
As I mentioned to Palms (see above), getting the freckles to look reasonable was a bit daunting.

Glad you like them though, Ray. Thanks for commenting.

Best,
-- Marty