"Reflections" - Part Two

Thank you to those of you who gave suggestions for the background of "I feel pretty..." Here's the process from where I left off until it was framed.

As a reminder, this is where I left off...

In the original photo, the background was dark. One of the suggestions was, 'Make it dark. The child will pop.'

Since I was experimenting with this, I decided to mask the mirror with black construction paper and get a sense of it.

I wasn't sure about including the mirror frame in the upper righthand corner, so I masked it also.

I think it needs the frame so your eye doesn't slide off the paper.

Then I took it to class...  everyone agreed that the figure does indeed 'pop', but there was also the feeling that the black was too severe for this young child.

I had anticipated this and had also tried several other possibilities. I did a very dark blue-green and added even more color to it with some pastels - swatch on the left. I also tried lighter watercolor mixes.

These are my swatches:

In the end, I chose a light blue-green - sort of a mix of the colors on top. I was thinking that the painting is very pink/rose and leans toward orangey/beige/brown. The basic compliments would be green and blue. I also thought it might show up more as a glass mirror.

I tweaked the face and hands some more, added some light streaks and made myself put it in a frame...knowing that I could 'tweak it to death' if I didn't get it behind glass pretty soon.

It goes to be juried later this week. Fingers crossed that it is accepted into the show.