Asking for Opinions Between Two Versions of a Painting I'm Considering Buying

[innerspaceboy]

I'm considering investing in a few paintings for the few remaining unadorned walls in my home. A friend from Ireland painted a handsome portrait of Miles Davis in a floating brass frame I'm thinking about buying.

I have portraits of several dozen musical, artistic, and creative heroes in every room of the house, but I don't have a portrait of Jim Henson yet. I poked around the web and found an artist who painted two versions of my favorite photograph of Henson, one in 2011 and again in 2014 after he'd refined his skill.

I'll paste decent resolution snapshots of the two versions below. Which one do you think would look best? I like the rough, organic qualities of the earlier painting, but when I view them full-screen on my desktop I lean toward the more refined and completed later portrait.

The artist offers professional-quality replicas printed directly onto canvas so it will look close to the real painting.

Share your thoughts! (Spoilered because they're big.) Thanks!

Spoiler

The 2011 version:


The 2014 version:

[close]

[Psy-Fi]

I prefer the second painting. Mainly because his waist doesn't look shredded off like it is in the first painting which also has some color bleed at his elbow which just looks like a mistake the artist made while painting the picture.

[Guybrush]

The first one looks more like a painting while the second one looks more in the style of digital art. I prefer paintings in general, but considering this will be printed anyways..

I would take into consideration the colors in the room where you plan to hang it. The first one might be a nice yellow pop on your wall, but maybe that's not gonna work. Or it might be just the thing.

[innerspaceboy]

Loving everyone's input! Forgive me for omitting the wall color - the room is painted dark blue. How does that impact your opinions?

[Psy-Fi]

I'd still go with the second painting. I think it would go better with a dark blue background. The yellow of the first painting would certainly make it "pop" against a dark blue background but it might make it "pop" a bit too much.

[Toy Revolver]

2nd

[Guybrush]

In that case, I'd say yellow for the nice pop 🙂

[innerspaceboy]

Thanks again, everyone. Forgive me - in retrospect I should have formatted my initial inquiry as a poll. (I'm not seeing a poll feature on SCD and the traditional BBCODE for polls doesn't seem to work either - am I missing something?)

A little update for those who are following -

I have Victorian-framed paintings all over my home, but the master bedroom walls are bare. The bedroom is painted a saturated, dark blue.

I spoke with my artist friend who painted the Miles Davis portrait which originally got me thinking about paintings. I got a snapshot of the piece. It's a minimalist style with a realistic portrait of Miles against a stark blue background, which, coincidentally, is a near-match to the wall color in the bedroom.

I reached out to the painter of the Jim Henson portraits last Friday inquiring about canvas reproductions of his work as I saw other paintings of his available as canvas and acrylic prints. Then on Monday I tracked down the artist's official Facebook page which confirmed that the contact email address from his website was still valid and active. I sent a heads-up message on Messenger but to date the message shows only as "sent" and not "delivered" nor "read." I'll give it a few more days but so far there is no response from the Henson artist.

When I spoke with my friend who painted the 11" x 14" Miles Davis about my interest he said that he'd sell it for $350 which sounds fair, particularly as the piece is already professionally-framed in a brass metal floating frame which would look stellar on my dark blue wall.

I mentioned the situation with the Jim Henson painting, and he said that he would be perfectly willing to paint a Henson portrait from the original source photograph, which I was able to find. So it's nice to know that there's still potential for me to have that piece, as I could request the best of both worlds from the two versions I shared earlier in this thread. I understand that a commissioned painting would cost considerably more than the digital print on canvas from the other artist, but at least this way the two paintings would be by the same artist so they would be more consistent with one another.

I start my new career on Monday, and I'm going to give it a little time to find my footing and make sure that I'm in a secure financial place before I start commissioning paintings. But at least my friend knows I'm interested in the Miles piece and I have a standing offer for the commission for the portrait of Henson.

Things are looking good!

[Guybrush]

You can choose to make a poll when you make a thread, but maybe it's hard to add one after the thread is created. I'm a little unsure, actually, so used my admin powers to set one up for you 🙂

Let me know if you want the poll changed in any way!

[innerspaceboy]

WONDERFUL NEWS!

Sorry for the second update but there is significant news to share! The painter of the Jim Henson portrait replied to me on FB Messenger this morning. He apologized saying that his messages were getting kicked back over email so I'm so glad he made the extra effort.

He kindly explained:

"Since it is not a officially licensed painting, I cannot sell it commercially. However,  on the deviant art page you can download the full high res version of the painting that you can print yourself. There is a button on the 2014 version, just below the picture, that you can click. Then you can print it yourself.  I suggest using easycanvasprints.com. They have he best quality for the price."

I followed his instructions and found that the yellow earlier draft of the painting was not available at full-res but, like he'd said, the 2014 more polished painting was. (That at least makes the decision of selecting which painting to invest in easier for me.)

The 2014 painting artwork is 30" x 24" at 150 dpi, which at a target standard print resolution of 300dpi yields a canvas of 15" x 12".

I immediately explored easycanvasprints and found that they have an 85% off sale and I can get a 15" x 12" vertical canvas print for just $27.13 with an optional frame starting at $30.17. So for $57.30 I could have the piece printed, mounted, and framed, with no cost for the artwork itself!

Here's the site's automated mock-up of the printed and stretched canvas:



And here's the least-expensive framed solution:



I'm going to seriously consider this solution. It's really a steal of a price, and I sincerely appreciate the artist's honesty and kindness in volunteering that information. And this would leave me with more funds to direct toward investing in the Miles Davis painting down the line.

What do you guys think?

[innerspaceboy]

Realized that the 85% off sale was for Mother's Day several weeks ago, so I jumped on the sale price while it was still active. LOVED how easy the site's customization and order process was. They offered me custom canvas sizes, custom framing, automatic bleed added to the layout, mounting hardware, and several speedy options for delivery. And then they tossed in a free canvas for my next order. VERY happy with the service! I should have it by next week.

Thanks for your input, everyone!