The metallic silver background layer creates a negative white light effect in the composition — the silver behaving as an internal light source that the darker greens of the foreground...
The metallic silver background layer creates a negative white light effect in the composition — the silver behaving as an internal light source that the darker greens of the foreground sit against rather than absorbing. The result is that impression of sunlight filtering through dense foliage: the brightness coming from behind the trees and plants rather than from above them.
Chris Keegan's Wild Orchid is among his most atmospherically successful botanical pieces, the technical approach — silver background, darker layers over it — producing a quality of light that photographic observation of woodland would capture but that requires deliberate construction in print. Four colours, metallic silver, lively, hand-pulled. £100.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chris Keegan
Chris Keegan is an illustrator living and working in London.
Since graduating from Camberwell College of Art he has worked for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including the Financial Times, Time magazine, the Observer, The Guardian, Time Out, GQ Australia, Mac User and Design Week Magazine.
He has worked for a variety of trade magazines and created images and designs for many design and ad agencies including Souk, Mother London, COPA and Momentum Design.