Thanks for the critique, as always! It's much appreciated.



Yes, you're right -- there's a common rule like that (I think it's laid out in Loomis... or was it "Framed Ink"?), but the exception to the rule would be (quite sure it's in Framed Ink...) that if you want the composition to feel constricted (more "moody" and depressed) you can limit the space around the character.



That said, it wasn't really the reason I set it up like that for this painting. There was very little planning or active thought going into it, but I did it just as a breather really. I tried moving it around after you mentioned it and while it does lose some of it's gloom, I agree that it's probably a good change overall.