# Composition for Small Paintings

> Arrange shapes, cropping and focal points for strong designs

Teaches how to design a strong composition: cropping, focal point, placement, shape variety, and common compositional mistakes with fixes. Use when planning or critiquing a painting layout.

- Page: https://ss33.ai/skills/skillstore33/painting-composition-basics-95199077034
- Publisher: skillstore33
- Category: [Creative & Media](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01) › [Image & design](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01/image-and-design-nlbt3d)
- License: MIT

## Skill

SKILL.md: https://ss33.ai/api/v1/ss33/download/skillstore33/painting-composition-basics-95199077034

# Composition for small paintings

**How to use this skill:** These tips add to your answer and do not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's question from your own knowledge, then weave in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not shrink the answer to only these points.

## Setup process
- Start with instinct only, with no rules in your head. Rules applied too early box you in.
- If the arrangement looks awkward, keep moving things around.
- Budget real time. A 6×6 in. painting can take up to two hours to compose.
- If the subject you planned to paint won't compose, set it aside for another day.
- Remove any element that isn't helping.
- Be ready to change anything: table height, light angle, light type, background color, number of objects.
- Don't settle for a so-so arrangement, because the painting will be so-so. Wait until you are excited about it.
- When the arrangement is almost working but something is off, consult the rules below.
- If you like it and it breaks a rule, keep it. If you break a rule on purpose, commit to it fully.
- Avoid anything that feels awkward. The viewer or buyer will feel it too.

## Play and props
- Try different bulbs, or put the setup by a window for natural light.
- Try odd colors, stacked objects, and homemade backgrounds such as painted polka-dot fabric.
- Keep a stock of props (cups, plates, bottles) and background papers and fabrics to swap in.
- If a subject isn't working, substitute another of a better size.
- Cut objects up (for example oranges) to get size variety when they are all the same.
- Never defend a flaw with "but it was really like that." Turn the spotted side away, replace the object, or paint the flaw out.

## Viewfinder
- Look through a viewfinder before settling on anything.
- Try several sizes and proportions, such as square, 5×7 in., or 30×40 in. Check whether the arrangement wants to be vertical, horizontal or square, or would suit a larger painting.
- While looking, also judge whether the background is too boring and whether an object would look better cut up.

## The One Rule: never make two intervals the same
- This rule is from Greg Albert, *The Simple Secret to Better Painting*. Intervals include distance, length, spacing and shape dimensions.
- Evenly spaced objects, or objects centered with equal margins, look boring.
- Fixes:
  - Shift the group off-center so there is more room above than below.
  - Vary the distances between objects and from the edges.
  - Overlap two objects so one reads smaller.
  - Point objects in different directions.
  - Use varied sizes and stack to different heights.
  - Move one object away from the group.
  - Use different margins on each side.
- A small accent object, such as a tomato for a pop of color, also helps. Don't put it in the horizontal middle.
- Avoid a horizon line at the middle of the picture, which cuts the composition in half. Raise the viewpoint so the horizon sits higher.
- Objects of equal height can have their tops line up. Changing the viewpoint reduces that.
- Add contrast, for example a blue plate instead of a white one, and add a fork for variety.

## Apply the One Rule beyond size and spacing
- Make one thing happen a lot and another happen less, for anything you can quantify:
  - **Color:** use a dominant color family with a lesser accent, such as mostly blue with a little orange.
  - **Saturation:** tone down the dominant colors and saturate the accent. One bright green accent in an otherwise grayed painting pops.
  - **Edges:** mix soft and hard. Soft distant tree lines suggest atmospheric perspective against sharper foreground.
  - **Brush strokes:** vary direction and size. Backgrounds usually take bigger, longer strokes, and highlights take smaller, shorter ones. Big smooth background strokes push focus onto a subject built from short strokes.
  - **Warm and cool:** use a small amount of warm balanced by cool shadows.
  - **Others:** value, visual energy, paint thickness, transparency versus opacity.

## Rule of thirds
- Divide the canvas into thirds horizontally and vertically, and put the center of interest near an intersection.
- It is consistent with uneven distances, since the subject sits nearer two edges than the other two.
- Treat the intersections as larger zones for more leeway. The real aim is knowing where not to put the center of interest:
  - dead center;
  - an even distance from the edges horizontally or vertically;
  - too close to an edge.

## Awkward situations to avoid
- **Kissing objects:** objects touching without overlapping are awkward. This includes objects that only appear to touch from your viewpoint. Move them apart by different distances or overlap them.
- **Kissing the canvas edge:** never leave an object or line barely touching the edge. Either crop it off the edge or pull it in about a quarter inch.
- **Rows:** two things in a row is unavoidable, but three in a row looks odd. Use a zigzag with uneven spacing, a pile, or crop one. Avoid cropping objects in half.
- **Corners:** don't run a line or object directly out a corner. Don't crop objects so the distances at the corners are equal.
- **Unfortunate tangents:**
  - These are edges lining up with other edges, with the paper edge, or with each other in a line.
  - Drawings often drift while you work, so reassess the composition after drawing and redraw if needed.
  - Break up an accidental line of objects with a light space.
- Fixing one problem often creates another. Expect to iterate.
- Odd numbers of objects are not required. Even numbers are only harder to arrange, not bad.

## Drapery
- Mostly use flat planes of background until you are good at folds.
- Avoid draping into a corner and cropping tight on the folds. It is hard to paint and confuses the viewer if the folds are imperfect.
- If you use fabric, show some edges so it reads as fabric. A piece of fabric passing through the composition is easier than a fully folded background.

## Practice exercise: Four in Four
- Choose one simple object and four different, harmonious colored papers.
- Make four different compositions using just those items, varying vantage point and light direction.
- Paint each only once you are excited about it.

## Demo sequence: a rule-breaking still life (6×6 in., oil on panel)
The setup was apples, a plate, a fork and a spoon, with a centered plate, an even object count, and objects in a row. It shows that an unconventional arrangement can still work.
1. Block in the light and shadow sides of the apples loosely, going past the edges.
2. Block in the silverware darks. Metal is mostly dark with little light, and if the darks aren't dark enough the highlights lose their "ping." Also work the reflected light and form shadows (the darkest parts) on the apples.
3. Add slightly lighter reflected-light bits on the silverware and start the cast shadows. Wipe paint away with a rubber tool to re-find a lost edge.
4. Establish the plate and its shadow, then carve out object edges with background color.
5. Fork tip: paint the fork as one solid shape first, ignoring the tines. For the negative spaces between tines, paint the middle one first, then one on each side.
6. Fill in the rest of the background, varying edge sharpness. Edges of shadows tend to be softer.
7. Don't go back into the apples or silverware much, or they get muddy and fussed over.
8. Last, add highlights ("bling") to the apples, plate and silverware, add the stems, and make minor background adjustments.
9. Sign with initials using the rubber brush, bottom-right corner.