The Pensive Palette: Silhouettes

"Marsh Wren", 22"x14", oil on board

Visual clarity and simplicity are often forgotten by artists who are so excited about their subject matter that they include everything.  Good picture making begins with a solid idea expressed through strong composition.  To help me achieve my compositional goals and maintain a clear visual message, I will often use silhouettes to make sure the main elements read well.  Reducing shapes to basic silhouettes allows me to focus on shapes without the distraction of colour or detail.  I can also make sure the shape I'm working on is interesting and drawn well.

When testing with silhouettes I will usually work quite small (thumbnails under 2") so I'm not tempted to get fussy.  I want to make decisions based on readability and detail only makes this harder.  We all love detail and can easily fall in love with superficial aspects of a subject while forgetting the overall shape of what we're painting.  Another helpful tool is a digital camera or smartphone.  You can take a photo of a sketch or painting in the early stage.  Use a very small, black and white version of this photo to study the overall impact of the shapes and make sure what you want to say is being heard.

The Pensive Palette: On Negative Space

The Pensive Palette: On Negative Space

‘Alight’ | 24” x 14” | acrylic on board (sold)

“The design of negative space can be just as important as the positive image.” (Joan Fedoroshyn)

As an artist, it is easy to be seduced by the primary subject matter we choose to represent.  But when you think of a painting as a flat space to be filled with interesting shapes, then design places just as much importance on the elements that aren’t immediately obvious. 

In music, pauses in a song add interest and build tension-- in the same way, spaces between objects in a painting become necessary and integral elements that require just as much thought as the objects themselves.

In this painting, ‘Alight’, featuring an oriole perched on marsh grass, I was conscious of the repeating arches of the grass bending under the bird’s weight.  The spaces between the blades created an interesting rhythm of pleasing shapes that allow the eye to dance with the positive and negative despite the relative simplicity of the background. I made an effort, in this case, to vary the shapes and keep them both feeling natural and asymmetrical while still giving a sense of balance and movement to the composition.