R.G. Loc: Scotland

Our fantasy creations don't have to be nebulous and obscure. Our imaginations can be vivid and so can our fantasy worlds. Your background provides all the mystery and obscurity that's needed to provide a stage that our vivid main characters can tell their story on.

Garish would have been inappropriate and would have looked out of place, but while your colours are strong they are also subtle.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

From what you started with to this reflects an incredible amount of talent. Stamina too I like it very much!

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thanks R.G. - the contrast between clear and implied is easier for me to understand and see than the contrast between Garish and Strong/yet Subtle. It is such things that are so damn intangible that it makes one want to scream.

I am by nature intuitive, but want to understand and rely on logic. I want my journey to be well provisioned and prepared, but always I find myself in stumbling about in what seems like a drunken stupor. I wish I better understood the line between Garish and Strong/yet Subtle.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thank you Linda - I think at last my Stamina failed me, and then I jumped in and took what I had.. It was impulsiveness that won the day rather than discipline.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Jack mentioned the similarity to writing, and I'm thinking there are some painters who go into a trance-like state where their right brain rules all. It sounds like you wanted to stay consciously in firm control where your inner artist was insisting it was his turn.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

when something ends up OK, and I don't understand Why, it drives me crazy. How can you control something like that? If I can't understand it, how can I repeat it? I want to be methodical and understand, I don't want to be lucky - if that makes any sense.

Ah the irony... I am a control freak, and I can't even control myself.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I understand 100%. I used to say I was a Type A-. I included the minus to separate from my brother and father who were Type A+

Hopefully you will find a balance you are comfortable with; I would think too rigid would leave viewers feeling cold about the art. We need some emotion!

In a thread from Brent Harder in PP Forum, I asked him how he goes about creating. Here is his response:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-626896-1.html#10834535

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pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

LOL, likely the ones close to you would say you were A+. Thanks for that link.

I truly believe art to be closer to craftsmanship and draftsmanship than to magic. Though it feels akin to searching for the fountain of youth, it is achievable to all. I believe it to be built upon a foundation of skill and knowledge and of very real things and while its application may seem abstract, it is not.

Or to say it another way, playing the piano is akin to playing tennis - but with an understanding of notes.

Like a long drive in the country, we sometimes forget how we got there, but for me, I wish I know now what I knew 10 minutes ago.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Easy - just think about the most overcooked photo you've ever seen - that's garish lol. You could also think about the difference between primary colours and in-between colours. The in-between colours seem to be a bit more forgiving when it comes to being overcooked. And for eye-watering retina trauma the biggest culprits are red, orange and yellow, especially the bright versions. Darkened, subdued tones are usually gentler on the eye.

I suppose you've realised that darkening a colour strengthens it and brightening a colour weakens it. That would explain one of the major differences between strong and garish. You used a darkish background for your scene, which means the foreground stuff doesn't have to be bright to stand out.

You're right about intuition being the best way to access the right brain workflow. As you correctly surmise, intuition can't be left unguided, but a left brain full of facts and figures is not the stuff that inspiration is made of. The right brain needs some guidance from the left brain and the good news is that the left brain can become a better guide through learning - not just from books and videos but also learning from experience. It'll probably be shown one day that learning from experience is the best way to learn and the good news is that you can provide that experience via a process of experimentation. The end result is that you end up with an informed left brain that can act as an effective guide for your right brain.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thank you for this analysis - it is very helpful to me. I like for instance that I can move "darkened subdued tones are gentler on the eyes" from intuition to a reinforced knowledge. I had never "logically" considered that you can get away with saturation on dark colors in a way that you can't when things are brighter. The conclusion I draw from this (that I will need to experiment with on my standard post processing of an image) is that using a luminosity mask, I can increase saturation to the darks while decreasing saturation to the brights perhaps.

And I strongly agree about the importance of learning from experience. We can read and watch till we are blue in the face, but without "doing", we never get anywhere.

About the left and right of the brain, I believe very much that getting the two sides to tolerate each other and to work as a team is indeed how we can grow in strength and performance and have good results and it is in fact the stuff of magic.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

I haven't tried it that way but it sounds feasible. Alternatively, if a specific colour was limited to the brights you could use the HSL tool to desaturate and possibly darken it.

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

thanks - will have to experiment with the HSL tool, usually I use master, I had not thought about using it on a specific color, Yes, there they are - reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, and magentas.