Black and White

The advantage of painting a watercolor in black, shades of gray, and white is that you concentrate your focus on values.  Sometimes, too, black and white is just the best choice to convey a mood or subject.

I wrote about this in an earlier blog when I painted a cemetery monument.  Garish bright colors do not convey mourning and grief. 

In this painting of a pianist, his formal attire suggested a serious mood.  Painting a background which contained color may have destroyed the unity of the piece, so I elected to keep the background quiet and in the same black and white mode.

I also used a spray bottle liberally to keep the lower portion of the painting fluid and undefined.  I hope your eye can fill in the blanks of bench, piano and piano legs.  Your gaze remains on the face, shirt, handkerchief and cuff, not only because they are the lightest shapes, but because they are the sharp edged areas while everything else is soft edged. 

Color choices that match the mood, and shapes that play up the focal point are necessary components of a good painting.  Be deliberate in your choices.