Who is on Center Stage?

I finished a number of paintings in my maritime series and have revised a number of them as well. It wasn't until the other day when I realized that I, like many other artist, suffer from not having someone behind me to "Gibbs slap" my head when I should stop! (Gibbs slap, for all you non NCIS watching folks is a slap in the back of the head done to bring your attention to something stupid you just said or an action that you did and shouldn't have. Usually it is very obvious to everyone else you "went too far"!) Overworking a painting is something that is very easy to do. When is it really "done"? What does "done" mean? The Catch-22 you could get into here is an interesting conundrum.

So, I got out my trusty DVD of Kevin Macpherson (as if I don't hear his voice in my head enough already! ;-) and then it hit me. In Kevin's DVD "Brush With Life", there is a portion of the DVD where Kevin discusses composition and how he selects the components of his painting. (Brush With Life is available on Kevin's website--www.kevinmacpherson.com). He actually makes this very simple and fun. And it is a rule I need to think about more as I begin to ramp up my outdoor painting again.

First, think of yourself as a Director of a play. This is rather easy for me, considering all my life I wanted to attend USC film school to be the next Steven Spielberg--ummm--I mean George Lucas. (Steven went to UCLA...)And as the director you get to choose the players in your play. More importantly, you get to choose who your stars are in this play and who are your supporting actors/actresses. With this in mind, let's examine my latest efforts that I called "Stranded".

In my mind, the stars of this play were the two boats and the platform that leads you to the two boats. It's a nice grouping of three objects and provides a lot of interest. Here's the painting before I revised it. I will admit now that I overworked it--got carried away with the colors and sunlight effects.



Notice in this painting that you are constantly moving from one object to another, almost like it is all overwhelming. Who are you suppose to be looking at the longest--all the characters are on the stage, in the main light and no one is supporting anyone. The trees are just as bright and light grabbing attention as the grasses in the foreground and the boats that are suppose to be in the middle ground--or as I said earlier on center stage.

Compare that painting to this one...


Notice the strand of trees that are now no longer on center stage as a main character, they support the main character by adding depth to the painting and a plane that is calm and supporting to the boats and platform. Since we read left to right your eye enters the painting from the left, moves to the bright platform or the orange bouys and then moves to the boats. The masts of the boats lead you upwards and the trees, again-now in a supporting role, moves your eyes right and down to the shack (notice in the first painting you barely notice the shack and pier) and the pier leads you back to the boats. There are a number of supporting actors in this painting and the main characters itself provide a lot of interest.
It is justified to have some interest in your supporting players, but pay very close attention to the values and the planes when you are adding that interest. Always keep in mind just who is on center stage. After all, you don't want a supporting actor who steals the show--as in Star Wars--there is really only one hero and it's not Han Solo! ;-)

I also would like to publicly thank Joe Anna Arnett for her comments to me when I was working this painting. Although she never said I overworked it, (Bless her!), she did make me realize how all of my characters were fighting for the same attention.