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Wish to paint the following dog on 11" by 14" paper

enter image description here

Also wish to use the following background

enter image description here

What size should dog be?

Specifically I wish the cluster of houses are in the background, to the Left (I can even zoom into the houses), and dog is in the foreground, to the right.

Please help me with this.

Artie Ladie
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  • I don't think this is answerable without knowing where in the picture you wish the dog to be (in the '3D' space of the second picture) at the very least. – walrus Aug 30 '18 at 08:36
  • @walrus I'd like the entire dog to be in the very front, on the right hand side. As if the Dog is at the place and we are taking a photograph. The cluster of houses should be in the back, on the left. Dog can be same size, and scenic photo can be zoomed in. – Artie Ladie Aug 30 '18 at 13:17
  • Yes, but to know how large to make the dog, you need to know how far away it is in the 3D space represented by the background picture (imagining that you're taking a picture of the background with the dog in), and how large (in real life) the dog is. – walrus Aug 30 '18 at 13:35
  • Hello @walrus Well, henry-taylor nailed it in his answer. And he even flipped the dog. It looks prettier than I imagined! – Artie Ladie Aug 30 '18 at 15:27
  • I had assumed that you were asking how to place the dog in the other picture, and thus asking how to calculate how big the dog should be in-situ, rather than just asking for opinions (which IMHO is off-topic). – walrus Aug 30 '18 at 15:38
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    I'm voting to close this question as it is mostly opinion based. – Vincent.W. Sep 09 '18 at 13:09

1 Answers1

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I don't know any formal artistic composition rules but how I would handle it is by mocking it up with either Adobe Photoshop or Gimp Photo Editing Software. (Gimp is free). Put the background in one layer and the dog in another, then scale and move each until it looks good to you. Dog On Background in Gimp

Then, just for fun... I apply an oil or watercolor filter to see what the finished product will look like. Dog on Background in Gimp Oilified

Then I hire someone with talent because without a computer to do all the hard parts... I suck at painting!

Henry Taylor
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  • Wow that is so beautiful!!!!! I paint with oil pastels :-) I wish I can double-vote up your answer! – Artie Ladie Aug 30 '18 at 15:25
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    You are welcome, but I really wasn't recommending a particular layout or scale. Just describing a method for playing with such factors to find what works for you. I really do recommend that everyone in artistic creation download gimp and spend a few hours learning how to work with layers. I have found no better composition tool anywhere. – Henry Taylor Aug 30 '18 at 16:24