And the Shadow is Gone!

Sometimes what you think will work, doesn't. It happens all the time with painting. I find an image that I think will look great as a painting, but when it's finished, it doesn't look anything at all like I imagined. I've learned to figure out what will work best, for the most part. Good contrast, interesting shadows, and spontaneous poses usually work well, but sometimes even those elements look bad.

When I found the image that I am currently working on, I thought it would work since it had all three requirements. I liked how the wind made the dress move and the spontaneity of the pose.  The shadows were great, including the one on the ground. But when I had the underpainting done, I realized that the shadow on the ground just didn't work. It looked like an alien or ghost coming out from underneath the dress. Without the horizon line, the shadow had too little context to make sense. It was "floating" too far up on the panel making it look weird. It seemed fine in the photo since the background was included, but it was  horrible in my painting. The shadow had to go.

Now that the shadow is gone, the composition looks much better. Her hair looks funky, but I guess that's what you get on a windy day at the beach.

This is the finished image without the shadow. I like it better
this way and think the white space works well with the image.

Here is the original painting with the shadow. Without a
 horizon line, the shadow seems out of context and looks like a
giant alien form to me. 

I worked on this painting today, also. I think another
day and this will be done.