Inside the portrait of Dorian

From the first glance, ‘Inside the portrait of Dorian’ is mysterious and intriguing. Two ladies stand in a misty, shadowed woodland with only candles and lanterns as a light source. The immediate impression is that this piece has something more to offer than your average photo-manipulation, a story behind it which you haven’t heard before.

The foremost model plays an important role in this piece, her positioning, lighting, and the hour-glass in her hand grabbing browser’s attentions for the first time. She is definitely captivating in historical-style clothing of striking red and black. However, a few flaws deduct from her overall influence. Her skirt, which seems to have been added fails to convincingly meld with the corset. It creates a shadow around her hip and appears too wide. Maybe adjusting the dimensions could remedy this? And adjusting the colour so it matches the corset’s red more accurately might help to unite them better as well. One more (very minor) point about the front model is about the lighting. The necklace and gloves seem to reflect slightly more light than the surroundings seem to offer. They could be dulled slightly.

Moving onto the book stack and candles. To be honest, this is the main let-down in the piece. While I can see the merits of having a light source in the foreground to light up the front model, and the symbolic effect of the books, skull and candles (which certainly contribute to the mystical effect of the piece), the physical ‘look’ of the objects needs improvement. The left edge of the books has a distinctive border which detaches them from the steps upon which they are meant to reside. Even though the lighting is well done and I like how they gradually blend into the darkness, this well-crafted effect is dominated and concealed by the ill-fitting border.

The rearmost model is very well done. Her direction and placement complements the foremost model perfectly, in a mutually emphasising way. The style of her clothes and her stance also fits well with the piece. When I imagine the artwork without her, the result is a strong imbalance between the background and foreground. So, apart from contributing to the overall atmosphere of the piece, she also plays an important balancing role. The only suggestion I would make is this: Considering she is in the background and surrounded by a haze of mist, I think it would look better if her edges were more indistinct. Her rather solid edges somewhat counter the concealing, mysterious effect of the fog. This isn’t a major issue though.

I also really like how you’ve enhanced the background from the original stock image so it has a more mystical effect with lighting to better match the atmosphere you have created. The addition of sparkles and extra tree branches works very well with the piece as well.

Overall, a very striking piece with the potential to be something different from the average dA manip. Any problems are more due to the need to work on ‘technical’ skills than any lack of creativity or imagination, which is quite understandable from one who is still relatively new to the art of photo-manipulation. Well done! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Big Grin)"/>