Some simple things you need to remember in order to create better compositions...

COMPOSITION, SPACE & DESIGN

If you only remember one thing, make it this! Imagine that your picture frame is divided into 3 sections, along both sides of the artwork. If you line up key features of the composition with these lines, your compositions will instantly start to look better!

THE RULE OF THIRDS

You can use the power of lines within your compositions to draw the viewer into the image, or to encourage the viewer’s eyes to wander around the artwork. These photos all use strong, dramatic leading lines.

LEADING LINES

Allow shapes to completely fill the space within your painting or drawing. This helps to create a strong impact and draws the viewer’s attention to details.

CROPPING

Another way to create effective compositions is to focus on the areas between the objects (negative space) as much as the objects themselves. In all these artworks, the artists have emphasized negative space in different ways.

USING ‘NEGATIVE’ SPACE

All these photos use a ‘frame within a frame’ to help divide up the image in interesting ways, creating a tension between the edges of the artwork and the frame within it.

FRAMES WITHIN FRAMES

In these artworks, flowing lines have been heavily used in the compositions to help create compositions with a sense of life and movement through the image. This helps to stop artworks looking static and flat.

RHYTHM / FLOW

UNUSUAL VIEWPOINTS

All these compositions make dramatic use of unusual viewpoints and angles to make the viewer look at their subject matter with fresh interest. This can be very powerful in making a strong impact.

Exploit reflective and mirrored surfaces in your compositions to create complex, lively artworks. Reflections can also be used to set up tensions between different parts of the image (see the b/w photo above).

REFLECTIONS

Think about where you place your ‘horizon line’ – in still lifes, landscapes, even abstract works! In both these paintings, the artists have used extremely high horizon lines as a key part of their compositions.

HORIZON LINE

A symmetrical composition (left) will generally create an impression of balance, calm, order and stillness within your work. Using asymmetry, on the other hand, throws things off balance, creating the impression of movement or tension.

SYMMETRY & ASYMMETRY