drawing / painting on grey background

[jakobweiq]

this question always stuck in my head..

wats the rationale behind drawing / painting on grey background?

so i need ur guys take on it..
the best i heard is it gotta do with color theory..
althgh i do it cos i don wanna burn my eyes with white bkgrnd on PS or painter (thgh on Illustrator i can't change the color of the bkgrnd)

[Nickillus]

I often start with a mid-grey or toned background to draw on, because it gives you two ways to go - darker or lighter - and fills in your mid tonal values right off the bat. Can be a real timesaver.

That's not to say that I always do it. White paper has an appeal all it's own, as does a dark ground. Depends on the subject I'm tackling and my mood about doing it.

[Muz]

the main reasoning behind it is that it gives us freedom to work the values, as we start out with a medium base value.

think about it, if you start out with a white bg, but you want a dark scene, well thats just not gonna fly! samee for a bright scene with black.

Its also so you can always push your values just that little bit further.

If you want to get further into it, you also have to realise that white and black in an image isnt always pure white or pure black, it is based on the relationships with the values around it and so we can create illusions to trick the eye. This is much easier to acheive from working from a grey bg.

Also when working on white with colours it tends to make everything look washed out.