Changing backgrounds on a painting

[Linda and "Toby"]

Sometimes it's fun to experiment with different backgrounds on a painting.

[Linda and "Toby"]

I was looking at this portrait of Toby this morning, and thought, "Hmmmm.... maybe I should have made the background a little bit lighter. It feels too dark and contrast-y." 

So I grabbed a stock photo image from Stock Exchange (www.sxc.hu) with colors that I thought might work nicely...

... I mish-mashed them up in Corel Painter (11)....

... laid it over the top of my original painting (as a layer mask, using Adobe PS CS5), rotated it around till I found a spot that had the colors/patterns where I liked then, and then I worked it into the background:

Sometimes it helps to get away from a painting for a few weeks/months and then look at it with fresh eyes.  I think I like it better this way. But who knows... maybe I'll come back to it next month and say it was better the first way - lol! I'll save it both ways, just in case.  :)