Drawing Skills
A Kitchen-Table Still Life Checklist
A short checklist for setting up a still life on a kitchen table, from the light and the crop to the ellipse and the values.
Tag
composition
10 posts tagged "composition".
Art History
Vanitas Still Life: Objects That Keep Time
How vanitas still life used ordinary objects to talk about time, and how to borrow the looking without the costume.
Art History
What Ukiyo-e Taught Painters About the Crop
How Japanese woodblock prints used bold cropping and flat shape, and what that still teaches about framing a picture.
Sketchbook Habits
Thumbnails: Planning a Painting in Small Boxes
How a row of tiny thumbnail sketches lets you test composition and value before a larger painting begins.
Design Basics
Cropping a Picture for a Clearer Composition
How to crop a picture so the subject leads, the edges look deliberate, and leftover space is a choice rather than a habit.
Design Basics
Scale: Letting One Element Clearly Lead
How to choose a lead element and make it large enough that the rest of the page or picture can stay quiet.
Design Basics
The Rule of Thirds, and When to Break It
How the rule of thirds places a subject calmly, and the pictures and pages that are stronger when you ignore it.
Colour Theory
Value First: Why a Grey Study Saves the Painting
Why a small grey study reveals the drawing before hue gets involved, and how to carry those tones into colour.
Design Basics
Using Negative Space to Make Stronger Drawings and Designs
Negative space is the shape around and between things. Learn how to see it, draw with it and use it to make clearer, calmer compositions.
Design Basics
Visual Hierarchy: Guiding the Eye Through a Layout
Learn how size, contrast, colour and space guide the eye, with a simple squint test you can use on any layout or painting.