Luke

Here he is in all of his glory. You can see a larger version here.

I spent most of the weekend pondering over the background and all the advice the gurus offered. In the end I went with my gut and used the Silverwater marble.

I think mosaic gold would have worked well - particularly a dark copper gold. A darker marble would have worked, too. I was hesitant about using yellow. A brighter yellow background would be good - especially for an icon; however, I used too much yellow in his face and I thought a yellow background would either wash out his face or make him look a little sickly.

So, why Silverwater?

• Silverwater has a color tone that is not used elsewhere in Luke's head. It offers enough of a contrast to distinguish the head from the background but does not compete with the head.
  
• I wanted the mosaic to be all marble. After all, I do promote stone and want to show others what they can do with it.
  
• I used a dark background in all my other portraits. I wanted something lighter.
  
• I have a special affinity for Silverwater. When Michael and I visited Sophie in Ontario last summer, she took us to a "stone yard" in a nearby town. The place had about ten acres of piles of stone mostly left over from construction jobs. I suppose it's a place where stone goes to die unless someone (like us) finds a special use for it. We found about 5 slabs of this stone and loved its silver-gray color - unlike any of the other gray stones which I offer on the standard Mosaic Rocks sample board. It cuts beautifully. (I do offer it on Mosaic Rocks while my supply lasts. Once it's gone, I won't be able to find more unless I hunt for it back in Ontario.)
  
• I am in mortal fear of the wrath of the guru who strongly advocated for Silverwater.

The background is not all Silverwater, however. I did mix in a little Bardiglio Nuvolato. I selected it because it was a little bit darker than the Silverwater, but when I placed it next to the Silverwater stones, it was interesting to see how much blue there was in it. Very interesting.

I did keep the first three rows around Luke solid Silverwater, thinking it would create a subtle halo effect. Well, it turned out to be subtle alright - too subtle.

So, in retrospect was this the correct background choice? I'm happy with it - but I wish I had three other mosaics of Luke's head where I could have tried different backgrounds. It would be an interesting experiment; however, more work than I want to take on.

Not done yet....

I know, I'm being picky, but there are two things that annoy me which I may try to fix.

The first is the color of the marble in his garment on his left side (yellow arrow). This color is too close to the color of the background. In full daylight, it looks OK. At night, however, in artificial light, it blends with the background making the black border of his garment look like it is suspended out in space.

The other issue is one stone on his chin (white arrow). This piece is a little taller than the ones around it and a brighter stone. It needs to go. Few people would notice it, but whenever I look at the Luke's face, I zoom right onto that one piece.