Tips for Creating a Background to a Mosaic

When creating the background of your mosaic more thought should be given to it that simple sticking your tiles down in a brickwork or grid pattern (like in the fish mosaic below).

Consideration should be paid to the colour choice of the tiles and the placement of the tiles. To help you with planning your background here are some points to think about:

• Choosing a background colour that contrasts the foreground figures will result in them standing out, for instance yellow and blue, black and white, red and green. Contrasting colours are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel, these colours have maximum contrast which increases their intensity this enhancing both of the colours. 
• Whereas, choosing a background colour that is closely related to the foreground colour will result in a more subdued piece. 

For more information on using colour in your mosaic click here.

Creating movement through the placement of your tiles will enhance your mosaic

Using the placement of tiles to create movement brings energy and life to your mosaic, and can also provides balance between the foreground and background. This is known as andamento, which is the visual flow and direction of your mosaic.

To learn more about and andamento just click here. 

Consider how movement has been created in the following mosaics which have been created by Cooma TAFE (and on display in Cooma, NSW).