Welcome to Compose. There's lots of stuff here, all about composing paintings.

Current entries appear in Dianne's weekly newsletter.




Friday, May 11, 2018

Give Your Paintings Life the L Path

Whether painting a landscape scene or putting together a still life setup, the L Path is a tired and proven method for balancing the major movements in a composition.  It creates a balance where the vertical leg gives sets a vertical axis, usually close to the edge and the horizontal leg stabilizes the weight.  It's usually on the horizontal line where we find most of the activity in the painting.

Take a look at how these three artists have successfully employed the L path. 

Qiang Huang  used the coffee pot to set the vertical of the leg, the arranges the images along the horizontal leg to give us the balance.  Notice how the major activity is along that horizontal leg.
Jennifer McChristian does the same thing, but in reverse, flipping the L movement.
 
Joe Paquet's vertical leg actually hugs the edge of the canvas, and like Qiang's still life, the major activity lives along the horizontal line.

Here they are together with a diagram showing the L path in each. 

4 comments:

Clipping Path said...

Thanks for sharing, this is a fantastic blog post. Much thanks again.

Unknown said...

Thank you for your most impressively detail.Well appreciated

Unknown said...

I am a beginner. I am also a 'what if' kind of person a.k.a Asks A LOT of questions. I have watched many of your videos and have NO QUESTIONS....nada! You are a wonderful teacher! Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much Dianne. I have just stumbled upon your teachings and I am instantly inspired to have a go!