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Part 2: Rule Of Thirds, Why Is It Necessary?

Obvious question.. Does an artist need to compose a piece? Here let me relay an analogy of a house being built. Although the contractors will be the ones building the house, the owner will definitely have an input regarding the number, locations and the lay of various rooms.

Mar 28, 2018

Part 1: Rule Of Thirds

All good art has to be designed and composed well. Which takes quite a while, loads of patience and several thumbnail iterations before embarking on splashing the paint on to the canvas.

Mar 25, 2018:

Part 3: Rule Of Thirds, How Did It Come About?

The rule of thirds (RoT) that I discussed earlier is a principle of design to present a more aesthetically pleasing arrangements of the main focus of the painting. It is most likely derived from the “Golden Ratio”

Mar 31, 2018

Part 4: The Tyranny Of The Rule Of Thirds

As I discussed on the last posts, placing the area of interest in the centre of the painting is boring and hence the rule of thirds was devised to encourage the artists to place the focal point off centre. However not all images lend themselves to fit this mould.

Apr 5, 2018

Apr 10, 2018

Quiet Area

To prevent the painting from getting too busy, the artist usually places a quiet area in the painting typically around the focal spot. This provides a rest to the eyes, especially when it is placed next to the busy focal spot. This quiet area is designed such that

Apr 16, 2018

Competing Focal Spots

The aim of every artist is to grab the attention of the viewer and direct it to the one object that attracted the artist to paint the scene. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, the artist usually places this attractive item at the focal spot to act as an eye magnet.

The Concept Of Value Contrast

Apr 27, 2018

On the previous posts, I have discussed where the artists place the focal spot and why. In this blog, I wish to relate the concept of contrast to grab the viewers attention to the focal spot. The foremost of these principles is the value contrast. In art, value means the lightness or darkness of a tone, where black would be the darkest value, white the lightest value

May 3, 2018

The Concept Of Colour Contrast

In my previous communication, I discussed the concept of value contrast in attracting the viewer's eyes to the focal spot. Another strategy employed by the artist to accomplish the same purpose is the use of colour contrast.

The colour contrast concept may be used in one of several ways. Some of the method used are as follows:

The Concept Of Edges

May 10, 2018

Previously we looked at the value and colour contrast to direct the viewer's attention to the focal area. Today we will discuss how edges also accomplish the same purpose. The human eye, when it looks at an object, the image of that object falls on the fovea or the yellow spot on the retina.

May 12, 2018

The Concept Of Texture

Texture is a visual phenomenon. It may be physical or implied. When one applies thick gobs of paint on a smooth surface, one will be able to feel the physical texture. Vincent Van Gough was a master at this.This unfortunately is possible only in acrylic and oil paints. For watercolours and pastels, the texture is implied.

Eye Magnets

May 25, 2018

We have seen on the previous blogs how artists use various tools like values, colours, etc. to guide the viewers eyes around the paintings, particularly to the focal area.

One of the items that acts as an eye magnet is a man made object.

Miscellaneous Attractions

Jun 1, 2018

In the last blog I discussed man made objects and particularly humans especially their eyes acting as eye magnets. We discussed the common ones namely, the values, colour in previous discussions. Other miscellaneous objects that attract our eyes,

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Mohamed Hirji