This painting Waiting in the Wings was inspired by my jaunts to Cat Street Market off of Hollywood Road, near Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong.  A few of the vendors there sell Chinese Opera marionette puppets. Like the embroidered slippers, I was immediately attracted to them for the variety of color, pattern and personality!

I was happy with this painting when I did it.  After recently getting it out and living with it a while again.  I decided to do some tweaking.  I felt the background was too much the same value as the rest of the painting and wanted to make the puppets stand out more.  I also played around with more value changes on the puppets themselves as well assome lost and found edges.  With a stencil I created a slight vertical striation very subtly in the background to represent the puppet strings without being to literal.

Waiting in the Wings before tweaking

 I’m happy with the tweaks.  A painting I thought was finished has a new lease on life!  The title has become even more appropriate. :-)