White is not a color

When I was in college I noticed that people seemed to hate seeing white in a painting. Many times I brought a painting to a critique that had a white background, but ever single time my peers would say, "the white just makes it look unfinished."

I was looking at the sketch I posted the other day, and found myself saying the same thing - the white looked too bright, and unresolved. Originally, I chose to leave the small bits of white thinking anything more would be too much noise, but when I looked at it again, it seemed as though the white was the loudest noise possible. I just thought I would share the before and after with you - I think it's funny how 99% of the time it seems the artwork looks better without any white.