I asked an artist, whom I greatly admire, to help me figure out why this piece kept bothering me.
Michelle Grant ( http://michellegrant.ca Canadian--which I don't hold against her ;)...) showed me how the layout was weak, but then gave me two great planning tools that I can use not just to 'fix' this piece, but carry forward to future pieces.
the pictures here show my piece grided with the 1/3rds composition rule and how the key elements don't line up with any of the intersections. The second image shows my piece cropped so that the key elements hit right on the intersections.
In addition, when planning a piece Michelle states, :The motive involves the division of space beyond the 1/3 rules. You decide which part of the space is going to be largest, and then the smallest, and then one will be the middle size. Here is a grid to hopefully clarify this theory.COLUMN #1 BACKGROUND MIDDLE GROUND FOREGROUND COLUMN #2SMALLMEDIUMLARGEYou take an element from Column #1, starting with your "BACKGROUND" for instance. You then decide which size it will be by choosing one of the sizes from Column #2. The Background could be Small, Medium or Large, but for clarity sake, I'll say the Backgroung will be Small.Then you decide on your Middle Ground, with a choice of Medium or Large, and I will say the I want it to be Medium in size. That now leaves the Foreground to be Large in size in relation to the other areas of the painting. The easiest way to decide this is to write out the Six Elements on a piece of paper into the two columns and draw a line across from Column #1 to Column #2, and none of the Grounds will be the same in size..."
Which makes sense.....so anyway, I am not going to crop this piece down because eliminating the top and the right elements does not appeal to me. But I will re-do this idea and lay it down right before putting any paint on it.
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