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Saturday, 07 July 2007 |
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Landscaping a garden is an example of good or bad composition; some look terrific, some are just boring. Drawing a line of fence posts is not as simple as it seems, as, if they are in the wrong place or incorrectly spaced they can divide the paper too strongly. The best position for strong lines is on a diagonal. A pathway, road or river draw the eye into the picture especially when placed on a diagonal.
Rhythm and continuity are essential for an interesting composition, curved lines being useful for this.
A picture generally has one area that is the main feature and this is often drawn too small. Your subject should always be the most prominent, not stuck at the back of the picture, or so small that you can't see it. The most interesting place would be to the right or left of centre. This is referred to as the golden rule, the golden section or the golden mean, and occurs in nature in such things as snail shells or seeds on a sunflower.
Overlapping large objects keeps the eye focussed on one part of the picture and the eye is drawn to the lightest and darkest areas of a painting. There are three main tones, dark middle and light, with objects only being seen against a different tone. The main contrasts are usually in the foreground as the main subject, not allowing the background subjects to intrude in tone or colour. © GMH
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