Thinking About Backgrounds

A lot of artists focus on the subject and don’t think about the background until all of a sudden the subject is done and you’re left with an unpainted background. Now what do you do? Even if you paint the subject before the background, you should have some idea of where you want your painting to go including the background. Here again is my demo for the Dixie Watercolor Society in St. George, Utah that I started. I did have an idea of where I wanted the background to go but not enough time to finish the painting. I told the Society that I would finish the painting and then send them a copy. One of the drawbacks of finishing the subject and then tackling the background is the fear you might have of messing up the background and thus ruining the entire painting. But you have to dive in, have some faith and go for it. If you’re afraid it will show up in each stroke of your brush. Here’s how my diving in ended up.

I love how the dark background shows off the face. I also love how the dress turned out. It was painted freely by looking at the photo of the dress. It’s a combination of the reference material and what ended up on the paper. Below is the demo I did the year before for the Dixie Watercolor Society. The graphic quality was achieved by using masking tape instead of masking fluid.