From the Artist: Having been recently introduced to colored pencils, I have been practicing by doing a series on black paper. This one for the August project was the most fun. Blackberries are in season now and grow wild everywhere in the area where I live. The smell is wonderful as they ripen in the sun. I hoped to capture that somewhat.
From the Painting Guide: Your painting brings back memories of when we lived in a house with a blackberry thicket at the bottom of the garden, of impatiently waiting for the fruit to ripen, and berry-stained fingers when it finally did.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: Look at how the arrangement of the leaves leads your eye across the painting, from the bunch at the top left down the diagonal to the bottom right-hand side of the painting. The fruit is place on the golden mean, the so-called 'perfect' spot, which is approximately a third in from the edges (which is where the rule of thirds comes from).
Background: Consider how this painting would look if a light background had been used instead of a dark. I think the subject simply wouldn't dominate the space so strongly. For starters, some of the tones on the leaves are very light, and would be lost against a lighter background. Then there's the unity created between the darks of the ripe berry and the background.
Negative Space: The space around a subject isn't wasted space, nor should it be neglected when you're planning a painting's composition. The shapes made by the dark background, i.e. the negative space around the leaves and berries, are an important component of this painting's composition and have got visually interesting edges, which helps pull in the eye.
From the Painting Guide: Your painting brings back memories of when we lived in a house with a blackberry thicket at the bottom of the garden, of impatiently waiting for the fruit to ripen, and berry-stained fingers when it finally did.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Composition: Look at how the arrangement of the leaves leads your eye across the painting, from the bunch at the top left down the diagonal to the bottom right-hand side of the painting. The fruit is place on the golden mean, the so-called 'perfect' spot, which is approximately a third in from the edges (which is where the rule of thirds comes from).
Background: Consider how this painting would look if a light background had been used instead of a dark. I think the subject simply wouldn't dominate the space so strongly. For starters, some of the tones on the leaves are very light, and would be lost against a lighter background. Then there's the unity created between the darks of the ripe berry and the background.
Negative Space: The space around a subject isn't wasted space, nor should it be neglected when you're planning a painting's composition. The shapes made by the dark background, i.e. the negative space around the leaves and berries, are an important component of this painting's composition and have got visually interesting edges, which helps pull in the eye.