In my earlier post I showed a tracing of the darks in the picture I am working on, “Sitting on a Curb.”  For comparison, here it is again:

black sharpie on tracing paper

The next step was to make a negative of this tracing:

Negative of Sitting on a Curb

As you can see, I have modified some of the shapes.  Seeing them in a different format, (here the negative image) helped to point out some needed changes.  So now it is evaluation time.  What questions do I need to consider?

Are the shapes recognizable and will they be interpreted to mean what I am trying to say?

Are the shapes interesting and entertaining?  Do they interlock with each other?

Is there a dominance of either light values or dark values?

I think the shapes are fine, but I am concerned about the dominance.  I think the lights and darks are about equal, so I am going to make the background grass become all a dark shape, with mid-values for texture.

Now the challenge is to apply this to the painting!