Painting Composition Tips.

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Painting composition is very important. In fact, it's one of the most important things in painting.

Let's look at a few examples of how to use it in your paintings.

I designed the composition in this painting to lead your eye where I want it and to make things more interesting. Let's take a closer look.

You can see how the viewer's eye is lead up the creek and to the right. The strong light coming from behind the trees is very bright, so it get's your attention easily. Look at the original picture with no red lines to see what I mean.

Anything bright will get your attention. Actually, "contrast" is what really matters. If the whole painting is dark, a midtone spot will get your attention. On a painting with both darks and midtones, a very light spot will get your attention. Anything that stands out as being "different" will get your attention. So, a dark spot on a light surface would also stand out.

Color can also catch your eye. An area with bright colors such as red will grab your attention. Neutral or gray colors will not hold stand out as much. Now, a gray color on a pure red painting will stand out, but you won't have that situation as much. I'll talk about color some more in a minute.

Here is another example:

The two red circles here are the "main" areas of the painting. This is basically the focal point or subject. All good painting composition needs a focal point or focal area. Basically, you need a place for the viewer to come back to. It won't always stand out or be something specific, however.

I emphasized the blue in the water to make it look more important. I muted the blue in the water as it goes back to further enhance "depth" and to make the focal area stand out more. Colors should almost always get more muted as they get further away. There may be some exceptions (like bright objects in the background), but I generally use my most vivid colors up front toward the foreground.

I also made the tree leaves more vivid to the right in the upper red circle. I put the most detail and contrast of value in this area as well.

The background trees are just supporting the focal area, so there was no need to put in the same level of detail and color in the whole painting.

Moving on...

To add depth to my painting composition, I typically use subtle gradients. I make the foreground a little darker than the background. Now, I'm talking about the actual "ground" here, and not just the objects on it. I would do it with the water as well.

Look a the area circled in red. See how the ground is darker toward the bottom? Remember that the bottom of the picture is actually closer to you. Likewise anything in the sky gets closer to you as it gets closer to the top of the painting. Study up on perspective if this is confusing.

In this example, see how the trees and road get further away from you as they near the horizon line. (The horizon line is the horizontal line in the background)

And here you can see that as objects get further away from you, they also get lighter.

Okay, the subject of this lesson is painting composition, so I don't have much more space to go over a full lesson on perspective. I do, however, have a dozen or so lessons on perspective in our Masters Course. You will see a link to that at the bottom of this page.

Anyway, back to what I was saying about painting composition. If you make the foreground a little darker and lighten it up as you go back, you can make the ground plane "lie down" more. It adds a lot more depth. Go back up and look at the painting again along the left side. The ground goes almost straight up the side of the painting, so we need to make sure it doesn't look like it goes straight up in the air. The use of a simple gradient solved this problem.

You can also make your brushstrokes larger in the foreground and let them get smaller as they go back. Bigger objects or brushstrokes tend to pop forward. Smaller objects or brushstrokes tend to sink backward in the painting. Of course, if you use different sized brushstrokes throughout the painting, then you have a little more freedom and can also put large strokes in the background.

Painting composition is very dependant on you. What you put in, what colors you use, how you use brushstrokes, how yo use value, it all makes a big difference.

You can also watch the video on this topic as well for more information.

Here is a quick summary:

• Bright colors get your attention
• Areas of high contrast get your attention and look more important
• Areas with lots of detail get your attention
• You can use muted areas to balance out other areas
• The size of brushstrokes can be used to add depth as well
• Use gradients on the ground plane to make it lie down better and give more depth

Well, that should get you started. Painting composition is a huge subject. I just wanted to give you some important points to take with you when you work on your next painting. Keep these tips in mind as you paint. It will make your work a lot more engaging.

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