Negative space. Sounds like something right out of Torchwood! But what is it really? It's the blank spaces in a picture ... and it's useful, because it's filled with possibility. You can use negative space to make your hero stand out of the background, or you can use it to utterly change the characteristics of a piece of art...
This one was inspired by with works of the late, great Frank Frazetta, who was famous for leaving great swathes of the canvas dark. The empty spaces would fire your omagination -- you'd literally see things in the empty areas. Sometimes he'd shade in, with broad strokes, a suggestion of what was back there in the shadows. But when this one was finished, I couldn't help seeing all that empty space and thinking...Just when you've got it pegged as a classic, high fantasy, shazam!
You find out it's really a massive Italian space opera shot in 3D and filmed on four continents. (Uh ... not. Bit it was a lot of fun doing this. Click to see it at large size, and check out the credits...)
Must go now! Sorry this is brief, but I've been going flat-chat all day and am tripping over my eyelids! Sleep, you say? Why, yes. What a good idea, why didn't I think of it?
Jade, 8 January
