What is that special something that makes someone say "Wow!" when they look at a piece of art? Usually it comes when a piece is nearly completed. There is a tendency for artists to stop working once something satisfies what they are trying to capture. However, taking a bit more time and looking for something that is unexpected is when my works usually goes from a nice painting to "Wow!"
In the painting above, I knew I was going to make the heart with a purple hue and I already had the background painted. I asked myself what color would make stand out if I just added a little to this piece. Color is not my strength (more on that in another post) so I often rely on a color wheel to help guide my color choices. I've learned that colors that are opposite of each other on a color wheel will clash...unless one is the dominate color of the piece and the opposite color is use very, very sparingly.
With this piece the purple is dominate. The opposite color wheel hue is yellow. I added a tiny amount of yellow to the painting and suddenly it popped. Wow! factor achieved. That's when it's time to put down the brushes and not touch it again.
I should note that this is only one way to make a painting "pop" and that this does not happen every time I create something. When I first started experimenting with this I overworked many paintings and lowered the quality. It's a fine line to walk and one that takes a lot of practice to get right.
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