Backgrounds

If you've been following my work for any length of time you already know that I absolutely hate doing backgrounds.  Now, that isn't to say that I can't do them....I simply prefer an unadorned blank canvas that makes you focus on the subject at hand.  My artistic philosophy has always been "less is more"....it's always more interesting to let your imagination fill in the blanks.  An ornate and/or complicated background, at least in my opinion, is like being spoon-fed visual imagery by a fat rotund British nanny.  I dunno about you, but I prefer to feed myself, thank you very much.

Occasionally however, I'll get a wild hair and feel the need to do something a little more dramatic.  Now, if you are like me you can visualize depth, field-of-view, and perception in your head, but transferring said visualization to paper is where the train leaves the station and promptly derails.  One way of overcoming said derailment is to use an actual photograph.

Some will take a photo (or two), blur it a bit, slap on the foreground image, and call it good.  It works, but it's kinda lazy...and distracting.  Me, I prefer a slightly different method....take an actual photo and color over it while leaving out most of the finer details.  Is it cheating?  Is it tracing?  Sure it is, but if you ever see one of my drawn-from-scratch backgrounds and marveled at my kindergarten-like abilities....yeah, a little cheatin' is acceptable from time to time.