Colour

• The background of the painting uses mostly cool shades of green.
• The figure in the painting has warm skin tones with pink cheeks and red lips.
• Kahlo creates contrasts by using white for her shirt and black for the animals, white is used to further link her to the idea of her as Jesus and Black in the animals as they represent devils or demons.
• Around the contours of her face Frida had added strong shadows, such as under her chin and along her jawline, providing contrast and helping to avoid her face looking flat due to her front facing pose.
• The use of strong highlights on the leaves make them look shiny, and also help give them a curved form, contributing to the paintings striking visual impact.
• There is a wide variety of textures in this painting, Kahlo's skin and the leaves behind her appear very smooth and shiny, whereas the animals appear soft and furry, similar to Kahlo's own hair and eyebrows, providing contrast and interest to the artwork.
• Kahlo is able to replicate many different textures due to her skilful and varied media handling, she has used a wide range of techniques when applying the oil paints, which shows off her artistic talent and eye for detail.
• A curved/arched shape is repeated throughout the composition, it is seen in the wings of the hummingbird, the shapes on the leaves, the eyebrows, the hair braid, and in the wings of the insects, creating a strong pattern and tying all the subject matter together.
• There are no straight lines or geometric shapes within the painting, only curved lines and organic shapes have been used, emphasising Frida's affinity with nature.
• The thorn necklace is made up of more jagged, intertwining lines, these numerous overlapping strands create an organic pattern, which we also see in the repeated vein lines of the leaves, contributing to a busy composition.