Composition and background

 Regarding " background," if you look at the "solid" or mottled backgrounds in the works of great painters, it becomes apparent that these are not random splotches of color or brush strokes. There is a patterning in them that "recognizes," if you will, the structure of the main composition or subject. In fact, it can be argued that these subtleties, together with the alignments in the "main" part, the one you think you are looking at, serve very much as lines of perspective and of motion, such as might be more obvious in an architectural drawing or a city-scape. The subtlety of these suggested lines, along with their efficacy in directing the feeling of the eye may bear great importance on the success of the painting as a whole.