Back to dark backgrounds for a moment

I made a couple small dark background pictures, partly for practice but also to see what they'd look like if I avoided gray in the background. The backgrounds in these are almost entirely sepia / burnt umber / Van Dyck brown, although the darker one has a little bit of bloodstone in it.

I'll see if I can get better photos when the natural light is different. The colors are not coming out very true, but for now you get the idea. Really odd forms in these. I'm not sure why I made them that way, but I was more concerned with trying to play with various shades against the backgrounds. I might have to see if these backgrounds would work with forms that incorporate grays. [Edit: 1-25-15: I took some more photos of these and I'm going to post them along with the originals. These are the kinds of pictures that change when the light changes, so I'm still not satisfied with how the photos are showing them. I really don't know why I'm fussing with this stuff so much, but it's probably because these pictures are gripping me in some way. At certain times of the day, they definitely grab my attention in a nice way. ]

This is the latest photo. At least it's not as saturated as the one immediately below, which I posted earlier.

This is the first version I posted. Too much saturation in the colors in the photo, and maybe too much contrast.

This is the original version of this one.

This one has better focus, but now the background color is losing warmth.

Here, I'll add this other I did yesterday. I think I want to mess around with this one a little more, though.

By the way, these are all about 6 X 4 inches.

I don't think either version is better. They're both relatively accurate. I've actually played with this one a bit more and really like some of the stuff in it. I'll try to get a decent photo to update it.

Here's the revised version of the last picture. I know I might sound a bit delusional (and, as always, self-absorbed) but I really love looking at this picture. Some of the little things in it just have a solidity to them that I find wonderful. Sorry, this is one of those pictures that make me happy in a way I can't express.

I'm really beginning to like the brown / sepia / umber backgrounds. I don't know whether I will have a preference for the "temperature" of the forms, though. The ones that are gray are cooler against the warm brown background, but the umber / sienna forms are kind of striking and almost appear more hot than warm. I have to sleep on these for a while and see if either one starts influencing dreams.

I thought I'd also mention that the most time-consuming part of making these little pictures is when I put in the backgrounds. Building the backgrounds is a layer-by-layer thing, and I have to wait for each layer to dry before the next goes in. Each of these has either four or five layers of background watercolor.

 I like how fragile the backgrounds are. The paint gets a little thick, and since these are on hot press paper it's easy to abrade the surface of the paint or - as I found out the hard way - to lift paint if you press your finger against it. In the last picture I had to paint a form over a thumbprint..... well, if nothing else, having fingerprints in the paint helps authenticate the picture, I guess.