How much 'negative' space is too much?

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Dear Alexandra, Lacey and Linda,

I woke up this morning and turned on my computer and was overwhelmed by all the wonderful help I'm getting from such talented artists on this project. My plan was just to do the head and shoulders when I went to bed last night, but now I'm thinking I'll put in that cat after all.

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

If you put in more space to the left, you are really just creating dead space that doesn't need to be there.

Alexandra,

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say this. I have been studying portraits on the Stroke of Genius site and yes, I don't want to put space around something just for the sake of space. I'll attach a little 12"x12" I did recently. Almost NO space around this girl with the glasses and braids.

Lacey,

Thank you for taking the time to fool with my photos! You have shown me how the cat can work. If it looked like he was about to slide off my daughters lap it was because he was. I think your idea of adding a hand somehow will solve the problem of the cat sliding off the page. I have a better photo of the cat which I'm going to try and use, I don't have photoshop so I've cobbled together my xeroxes from Kinko's to get an idea. I think this is going to work!

Linda,

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. I have taken your advice and studied some portrait paintings. I think my problem is that I like both, space and no space. I'm attaching a small painting I did of a friend (glasses and braids), she's a hip young woman and the close cropped format just worked for her. That was an easy decision. I guess I just don't want my portraits to be boring, and with that said I guess equal negative space around figures tends to make them boring? As you said, there are no rules, I just have to keep trying different things. I'm beginning to see where Photoshop could come in handy.

thank you all,

Joan

p.s. My daughter is wearing that wrinkled white shirt because I took this photo at 7:00 a.m. She already had on her dark blue uniform shirt for school and she didn't want to hold a white cat, so I told her just to grab anything and throw it on for a quick photo!