Cute Baby almost ready - details to work on

[Atlantis]

I've been working on this cuty on and off for the past few weeks now. This is one of those that needs time outs for reflection on the progress.
It needed far more time than expected mainly because of the zillion white spots and the damage on the skin.
Also the dress was very "bleached". I did discover a small area that showed a leafpattern between the flowers but my attempt to recreate that pattern failed.
I need to recover the shadows showing the pillow I think she is laying on to give it a more 3D look as well.
But I thought I'd show my progress so far as not to get you worried about me maybe sitting back and doing nothing  ;).



Oops I suddenly noticed I accidently reversed the little ones right thumb ... will work on that some more as well. Promised!
My mouse's batteries have died a sec ago and my pen's battery is slowing down as well ... and so am I ... goodnight.

[Tess (Tassie D)]

Thats coming along beautifully Atlantis. :up:

[klassylady25]

Cute!

[glennab]

Atlantis, she's looking good.  My only pick is that she looks as if she's suspended in air.  It's really difficult to see the background, but looking at the soft line across the top 8th (?) of the photo, I'm wondering if she's lying on a fluffy off-white blanket.  Could some of the bunched-looking areas around her be folds of the blanket rather than damage?

GK

[Atlantis]

I need to recover the shadows showing the pillow I think she is laying on to give it a more 3D look as well.

I was thinking pillow but a it might be a blanket. I don't think she's in a newborn's crib, do you?

And since I'm typing anyway, I was also wondering about the blues and yellows in the background. For the WIP I painted a composition of white, yellow and blue but I don't know if the colours were actually there (besides the white or off white of the pillow or blanket she is laying on).

[glennab]

Hi again Atlantis

I guess it would be helpful if I read ALL of your initial post before I begin running off at the keyboard.  I obviously missed the part about the pillow.  I still think she's on a blanket, and I doubt that she's in a crib because nothing shows that looks like rails or anything comparable.  As for the colors, I'd keep the blue and lose the yellow.

Are you in love with this munchkin?  I know I am.  I watched her in the galleries for a while and almost chose her for my next project because she's so precious.

GK

[Atlantis]

O yeah, I think she's adorable  :loveit: that's what makes me spent lots of time on her to make her look at the best I can before I sent her home.
I noticed on the photogmark that the photo was taken in 1995 and I can't help but wonder how she will look now at [alomst] 13 and how she is doing.
Working on harder ones for a longer time often makes me wander along in my mind, getting attached to the families that went through the disaster and me sitting behind my pc in the comfort of my home.

*kicks her self away from here and back to work or else she'll never finish this one*

[Atlantis]

After some more work on the skin I found myself staring at some shapes & patterns.

The collar : one would expect the embroidery to be symmitrical but I don't see evidence of it, I also wonder about the irregular shapes of the curved extra parts on the collar - could it be caused by folding? and there seems to be some leafy embroidery on them as well (?)

Would her left sleeve have a white border or would that be damage?

My daughter agrees on me thinking the darkpink thing between the hands would be a bow with the rest of it hiding between the baby's left hand so I worked on it according that assumption.

On her right bottom of the dress there might be a faded/washed out pattern in what should be just shadows or would this be the back of the fabric aka the inside of the dress?

And I'm trying to define the outlines of the blanket/pillow.


... edited for pushing the wrong buttons ...

[Tess (Tassie D)]

I dug through some old photos of my eldest's baby pics. I was threatened with grievous bodily harm if I dared post an example.  :knuppel: The one that came closest had her propped up with a foam block behind her covered with a baby blanket.

[glennab]

Hi Atlantis

I can understand your concern about the embroidery on her collar.  It doesn't look symmetrical.  That could be a couple of things.  The dress is too large for that tiny body, so a lot of it is bunched and folded around her.  The collar could just be "scrunched" in such a way that it appears that the border is askew.

It could also be something lovingly made by a family member, and if it's a project like most of mine, it may not have turned out as balanced as it might have been if fabricated by machine. I love hand-made items for that very reason.  They're usually imperfect but imbued with the personality and love of the person who did the work.

That puts me in mind of our projects for OPR.  I know that none of my restorations is perfect, but I always hope that the family for whom I worked will feel how much I care. If the people I met in Biloxi are an indication, they do know and appreciate what it takes to expend so much effort for someone we'll never meet. Especially people around the world like you who are global family, but not even Americans.  What a wonderful gift for them and for us.

Forgive me for waxing poetic, but it's 4:30 in the morning here, and I've been in insomnia world for the past couple of nights.  Might as well do something constructive.  As in congratulating you for your one-year anniversary with OPR.  I remember when you first joined and mentioned that your pink ribbon avatar was in memory of the friend you'd just lost.  I thought that was so special.

Any-hoo, I hope my feedback on the collar helps.  I sometimes think we spend too much time trying to figure out or identify something of this nature, when we'd cause ourselves a lot less grief by just working with what's there.  Whatever it is.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Hugs

GK

[Atlantis]

After a million more white dots and some more details to work on I thought I'd share my progress again.
Because if it's a babyblanket where would the background start?
I must admit I prefer the fully off-white background though.

[Mhayes]

Hi Atlantis,

Great job on the baby! I agree about having the fully off-white background. The one thing that I think is needed now is to ground the baby to the blanket so she doesn't look like she floating in mid air.  What I would do is bring some of the blanket to overlap part of the dress and also soften the sharp lines around her head. You can also darken the shadows to show folds in the blanket like you see above baby's head in the upper left of the damaged photo.

Margie

[mschonher]

Hi Marga,

How does this look for a background.  She was floating in space  because there were no shadows beneath her and very little around the sides.

Hope this helps.

Mary :hug:

[Mhayes]

Mary, that looks beautiful!  :up:

Margie

[klassylady25]

 :-*  Wonderful!