AI'm still having a hard time "seeing" my cookies. This one in particular is missing something.

[IMG ALT=""]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3155950/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

He is a very rough prototype, so pay no attention to the caved in nose and stray mark lines, please. :) what can I do to bump his impact up a little? For sure I need to scale back on the size of the outlining for his features (ears, mouth, eye ....thingies? Cheeks? I dunno what to call those!) but is there something else you guys see that I can't as far as design to make him special?

He looks fine to me.  Maybe a contrasting color for the cookie underneath?

AA friend suggested outlining and another suggested some sprinkles, so here is an updated picture with those suggestions incorporated. I think it works! So pop artish. I do think flooding the background in color is a good idea too but I had to abandon ship to pick my daughter up from school so I haven't done that yet. :). Thanks!! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3155966/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I agree with you that the outline of the mouth, in the ears and under the eyes should be thinner.  Your friend's suggestion of outlining seems to have worked pretty well, too.

AIt's cute, I agree, a dark background would make it pop.

AThanks, MB! I'm still just a cookie baby...so much to learn. Not that I'm a cake master, either, but I only started cookies 8 months ago and didn't do another one until October so I am brand spanking new! There are so many great artists out there it's hard to be a newbie with passion but very rough skills. Lol

For the cheeks maybe you could try dusting them with pink when the flood icing is dry? 

what would happen if you outlined the bottom of the hat between his hair and the hat band--and just put a few lines in the hair to denote the strands--two or three-- only because i am staring intently at your incredibly awesome creation --the hair kinda comes off as one more ruffle--so his neckline and the white part of the hat are the other ruffles--maybe make a few strands in the hair--even with a brown color too ?

and i wouldn't be able to resist jazzing up his inner ears to match the outline of it a bit more and play up that elfishness --

wow that's a stunnning cookie--great work

First, that's a beautiful cookie - you do lovely work.

For suggestions, I'd be trying to think of a way to emphasize his eyes.  Also, the outline doesn't have to be black. For example on this picture, the outlines are mostly a darker version of the colors they're outlining.

AAll great suggestions and thank you so much for the kind words! I think sometimes we just have to walk away from a project, come back to it and look at it with new eyes. The hair does run together so it would benefit from some definition. And making the outline more subtle brings down the harshness a bit and would probably help conceal some of the messy piping. I have no art background at all so I keep thinking I need to take some basic art classes to help move me in the direction I want to go. Or I can just mooch off you gals free of charge, since your advice is proving to be spot on! :-D