Vignette background tips

What rules, formulas and tips have you discovered for backgrounds in the vignette style portrait? I am looking for guidelines related to color choice, locations of light valued areas, dark valued areas, etc.

Tammy, PT professional, 9 yrs
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[Chris Saper]

When you paint the portait in a vignette style, there are two main challenges to address: first, how to make the design interesting; and second, how to integrate the subject with the the background. In order to avoid a static composition, it's importatnt to pay special attention to the shape and distibution of negative spaces. To integrate subject and
background, you will need to rely on tools like lost and found edges along the silhouette, and light or broken stokes, particularly at the bottom of the image.

Using a toned ground (for example a toned pastel paper) in a middle-value color lets you go both lighter and arker with area of your subject...arrows, if you will, for your quiver...that won't exist if you work on white or black surfaces.

Grayed-down background colors are good foils for controlling thesatuaration of colors you use in painting your subject..complementary grays, or green-grays can also act as a complement for your skin tones, and add interest because they will be of varying temperatures.

Many artists use a convention of varying the background values so that the light side of the subject is against the darker part of the background, and vice versa. You might try this. You can also use color or value swatches into the background itself. Whatever solution you explore, it's good to always keep in mind your center of interest, and make sure that the choices you make in background, as well as in the subject, support it. I hope this is helpful.