Crop Or Not To Crop ?

I like the rawness of the deckled edges. Perhaps if the background was black, that would make an elegant display to enhance a primitive piece. I say - do it !

I agree 100% with Janine's opinion ~ wonderful image, btw!

I love the deckled edge. yes, try black or other colors. Of course, figure out what's up with your whites too. I would digitally "trim" the fat thicker pieces on the top a bit as they throw off the balance some.

Thanks Peggy : ) . Hmmmm........maybe red............

I like it the way it is. Keep in mind it may get rejected for some print types. Specifically a canvas print with mirrored edges.

I would not crop it. I would try different colors in the white area. Probably red or black, pulling something from the piece...or go complementary. if you leave the border and don't crop you'll be able print all the formats. There is actually an unlimited amount of things you can do in the border area but that's probably another discussion.

Thank you all for you compliments, help, and advice.

Digitizing does not do this type of art any justice.

I have spent months trying to get this right.

This is only a 9" X 12" original. Scanned twice and stitched together. I have some pieces that are 3' X 5'.

Does anybody know how to diminish the blue hue developed in the scanning process ??

don't crop...the top fish tail is way too close to the edge.

If you have the software try putting the background on a different layer...then lets say in PS I would take the main image (fish portion) and in layer blending lay in a drop shadow around the main paper feature so the main portion casts a small shadow making it more 3 dimensional and "real"...there's really an unlimited amount of things you can to with this image.. I think the red border looks way better than the white. There are all kinds of features in Photoshop to color correct hue....or lay in photo filter colors...Do you have Photoshop or elements?

by the way I think it was DiVinci who said an artwork is never finished..it's just abandoned....there are different levels of "finished'

My present workflow consists of,

Catch the fish.

Wash, pin, and dry fish.

Cover fish with either sumi e ink or thinned acrylic paint.

Place colored Unryu/Mulbery Paper over and rub as many details of the fish onto the paper as possible.

Then either leave the original impression alone or fill in the colors.

Photographing hasn't been doing the trick in bringing out the detail of the paper so digitizing is going to be scanning.

I scan the images on an Epson PERFECTION V37.

I then run the scan into a stitch software that came with a 20mp Nikon Coolpix called Arcsoft Panorama Maker 6 , which by the way has had me close to throwing my laptop because of its inability to line up scans.

I then bring the Pano Stitch into iPhoto to clean up as best I can.

I usually have to re export to desktop to reduce quality because of Mb size restriction.