Here a mountain there a mountain...

These mountain dunes have been quite a dilemma.

My original thought was to have blended color dunes using the darker colors that I used in the moon. Unfortunately, the result, as seen in the first photo makes your eye go to the mountain vs the moon which is the focal point. It is even more apparent when standing and viewing the entire piece. So, I ripped that out...

My next thought was to keep with the original colors in my first concept but get rid of the detail and go with large sections of saturated color. This too did not get my approval. You can see the results in the second photo. It looks like a comic book...not a bad thing...just not what I had envisioned. I really do want the moon to be the focal point.

I think the issue is that the yarns I am trying to use have values which are too dark. The darkest draws the eye toward the dunes vs. toward the moon. I initially thought these colors would make the moon pop. The blue surrounding the moon makes the moon pop. The dunes are competing for the viewers eyes. I would like them to set back and just be there to provide context. You can see the value contrast in the black and white photo I took.

I now am going to rip this stuff out and try sand colors. Eeek...making the sand dunes actually the color of sand dunes...what is my world coming to. I will try adding a bit of those saturated colors from the moon here and there. Check back in a couple of days and see how the latest version looks.

And I thought the mountains would be the easy part!