Thursday, March 19, 2009

Background Check!

I realized that some of what is wrong with my still life painting is that I don't know what to do with the background. I love vibrant colors and don't know how to work with neutrals. Any hints on this? This week, I went back to this small painting of a tuba that I did a couple of years ago. I took it from this:

To this:


So I wouldn't describe the background as neutral but I think it is better.

Blogger acting weird! Not my fault if the punctuation looks haywire!

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I really like what you had going in the background of the pink one! The blue background is a much better color. I might think about putting the background texture of the pink one back in!! A trick from Ariel- take a piece of plexiglass and white board markers and put the plexiglass over the painting. Then draw in the background on the plexi and try it out!!!

ariel freeman said...

I like "punchy" color also. But I have to keep it in moderation. What makes the "punch" work (I think) is the neutral you play it against and not over-doing it. What works better for the lower painting, is that you have beautiful intense color in a different temperature (cool blue contrasted to the warm yellow and hints of pink). In the first painting, the two "hot" colors almost cancel each other out (next to each other, neither stands out), you loose your subject a little. Just my thoughts... :-)

Elizabeth Seaver said...

Thanks, guys! I think I am learning something!

Tracey Clarke said...

I really like them both and they both work.
Just different expressions of feeling, I think.