A change for the better

Right, I can tell you more about the erotic abstract now.....

I was happy that I had finished it the first time, but the woman who I had done it for found it confusing in parts, and I realised over subsequent conversations with her that I had probably made it overly complicated in trying to hide the image. Her kids had seen it and had only seen colourful shapes, pointing out the fish, witch, birds wing and other outlines and missing the main picture, because it was only shapes. As it turned out, the adults I'd created it for seemed to have the same problem!!!! 

Mmm.... rethink!

I'd already said that it was no problem to change the colours and shapes to make it more obvious. I stood infront of it with the woman who it was created for and asked her what she could see. She told me, and although there were three people in the picture she could only see half of one of them in effect...  Ok, then I need to do some more work on it.

The next day I started tweaking it, and spent another four hours adjusting various parts to make it more readable. And showed the woman again. She looked at it, and her first response was that I hadn't made any changes, and then she looked a little further, and again, seeing the nuances of it,  and stood with a grin and said "I can see it now!". Phew, that was a relief! I smiled, and looked back at it, as she did, and I was pleased that she can now look at it and see the eroticism of the image. Although, innocent eyes will still only see innocence.......

And just to add to the rest of the story, she texted me this morning to thank me for the extra work I had done on it, and to say that she had read my blog from the other day when I wrote about making the changes, and NOW she could see the erotic shapes as I had planned in the ORIGINAL image. I laughed in disbelief, and she went on to say, that now that I had made the changes to the painting it had trained her eyes more, so that she could see the first image far clearer. I can understand that. And I am hugely relieved that she doesn't want me to continue painting to return it back to how it was! She understands, as I do, that the second version has taught her how to read it clearer!

So, on to explaining more about it, and to show you the finished version. The definitive version! Which, I know is still abstract and still "just shapes" - but if you look at the original working drawing, you will see instantly what the image is, and why it is erotic. There are three people in the picture, two women, and one man. The women are lying on top of the man, which is why you can't see him clearer. His hand is clear on the right hand side, as it rests on the back of the woman on the right. His other arm is actually the strange shape behind the woman on the left, his hand is caressing her neck, although the arm is only visible to the wrist. His head and neck are behind the arm of the woman on the left in the top centre of the picture, his legs are visible - one between the legs of the two women, and the other under the woman on the rights thigh. His cock is the strange shape in the middle of the picture, above the thigh of the woman on the right. His stomach is above, between the knees of the woman on the left, and the breast and stomach of the woman on the right.  As you have probably realised by now, the two women are caressing, but only using one hand each, on the arm of the other woman. I realised when I started working on the design that if I had heads, hands, and feet within the picture it would be pretty obvious what it was, and what was happening. So, I cropped the image, and that made the image more abstract straight away. Merging some shapes, and disguising the obvious shapes by adding extra distinctive ones, led the eye away from the image a little more. Having a limited colour scheme helped, and adding red and silver and black made the image more dramatic, and gave the viewers brain something to look at and question.

There are actually a lot of the original lines from the working drawing used in the finished painting. You have to look closely to see where they are, and as I said, I have purposely tried to hide them anyway.




So, that's it then. Done! And hopefully no more changes....... its erotic enough, and hidden enough as it is.