Nightscape – Leading lines (Art journal) (Patreon)

One of the things Warden006 and I like to play with is with very high contrasts.

We both knew we wanted to keep both characters silhouette being an important feature in the painting since deciding the poses. Some of the lines and contrasts for this were established in the sketch phase, others surged along the way during other stages

The most important thing I'm always considering during all the process is to make eyes (or face) higher in hierarchy to everything else so they grab attention first, this can be done with saturation, color or tone values.

From there I tend (not always!) to play with lines, colors and shapes to make everything revolves around the character's eyes, subject, or main idea; being careful in keeping the viewer's sight revolving around the image and not leading it  out (you can see how some lines are used to bring back the eye or stopping from crossing out the edge).

I think more can be said on colors used, so maybe a future art journal post will address this aspect of the painting.