Colorado

Well, here it is, a family portrait.  My mother and step father together in Colorado.  I think I did a fair job with this.  You can see in the picture below there was a lot of dark coloring in my step father's jacket and hat.  I had to compensate by making the collar and brim of his hat a bit lighter.  I did the same thing with my mother's coats.  I suppose there are better painters who could do a better job, while still keeping the collars and hats the same shade.  As for me, I thought it was a really good compromise.  I like the mottling in the pantlegs of the jeans.

Here is the original picture.  As you can plainly see, I didn't follow the proper background.  Well, I didn't know exactly what do do about the snow.  I've never painted snow and I didn't want to start now.  I wanted to give a soft diffused background that would compliment the subject color.  As it is I think I did a good job with it.  When you look at it, you notice the background but you immediately look away from it and are drawn to the subject.  I think I worked great.  Let me know what you think.

Also, don't you think it looks like mother is 20 years younger?