Test Pattern (Autumn Fail)

After taking a brief hiatus to work on another project it's back to the Test Patterns. For this piece I wanted to create a piece with a more subdued autumnal palette. However, the small study that I chose to base this piece on was much more springlike and saturated in color - I really like the composition but the colors weren't what I was after so I decided to scan the study and tweak the hues and color saturation with Photoshop.

Here's the original scan of the study:



Here's the image after I manipulated the hues, color balance, and saturation levels. I like the eggplant-colored bands at the top paired with the dusty browns and pinks:



At this point I need to say that I'm really happy with how the finished piece turned out - I think the colors work well together (maybe less so in the digital photo below - the large gray area at the bottom is more like the color of the altered scan above and the rust-colored area is a bit less saturated) and the composition is balanced. But obviously it's nothing like the altered, scanned image it was supposed to mimic. I got purple instead of eggplant, rust instead of dust, and overall the colors are far too saturated - not a very autumnal piece. Thus, Test Pattern (Autumn Fail):