Posted: Friday, 14 February 2025 @ 14:35
Hi from me, Martin at Terry Harrison Art, I hope this newsletter finds you well.
Composition ‘rules’
As a photographer I think about composition a LOT! I’ve read books on it, watched endless you tube videos by my favourite photographers and try and employ various rules when I take images.
These guidelines are just as relevant in paintings though as with any kind of image because it’s all about where the eye is drawn and what looks right and comfortable.
Many of these so called ‘rules’ extend to videography and every day life but like anything creative, we can play about with them and make them work for us, none of these are hard and fast.
Over the next couple of Newsletters I want to share these with you and show you how Terry has employed these in some of his images, some of which are final products for sale on the website and some of which are demonstrations paintings that he produced live during workshops and demos.
This week I will discuss the 2 most prevalent compositional guides.Rule of Thirds:This is a technique of splitting your image evenly into three both vertically and horizontally, essentially creating a grid over your image. By placing our elements within this format we can create a more pleasing image, you will often find in Terrys paintings that the foreground and background adhere to these rules:
‘Mountain Tor’ (original for sale on the Website)
In this painting you can clearly see the thirds being used - the bottom third shows the subject, the mid third contains the mountains and the top third the sky to create a pleasing symmetry .
Take this one:
Midday in Tuscany (Original for sale on the Website)
Terry has again split the painting into three discrete elements, a foreground of poppies, a mid ground consisting of the main subject and a background of skies over mountains.
Finally here is an example of where the split is done the other way:
‘Overnight Snowfall’ (original for sale on website)
The left 2 thirds are made up of the building and the right third is the lane and a more open space. The lane and fence act as leading lines (I talk more about these next week) drawing the eye to the right side and round to the subject.
This makes the image more dynamic and feel like it’s taking us on a journey rather than just presenting the barn to us.
This ‘rule’ has its origins in painting as the first written reference comes from 1797 by John Thomas Smith (thank you Wikipedia!) where he notes that “I have found the ratio of about two thirds to one third, or of one to two, a much better and more harmonising proportion”
Centred composition and Symmetry
At first glance this appears to be a direct contradiction to what I’ve just been covering and you would be right, it is!
Where employing the rule of thirds can give a piece more movement and dynamism, employing a centred and symmetrical composition means total focus on the main subject which is the hero of the piece, with background taking very much a supporting role.
Take this demonstration piece:
Demo image
The truck is the main subject and draws our eye in to look at it in more detail. You will come away from this remembering the truck but not necessary that there was a tree in the top left of the image!
‘Demo image’
In this one the main subject is not only central but also symmetrical which creates a real balanced image.
‘Cooling off’
One of Terry's last paintings, painted in 2017.
Here we can see there is a pleasing symmetry either side of the main subject which is the horse cooling down creating a balanced image but also directing our eye right at the horse.
I hope that this has been of interest, it certainly changed the way I look at not just painting and photographs, but also adverts, films, window displays and much more!
Next week I will go into detail about leading lines and the use of a frame within a frame.
I hope you have a great week and as always please do follow us on Facebook or and @terryharrisonartist on Instagram
Martin