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| Wimberley Plamp holding Carol Marine-style viewfinder. |
I recently came across Carol Marine's book Daily Painting in Dick Blick, and decided to finally get it and read it. Her style of writing is very open and engaging, and the quality of the "lessons" is very good and well illustrated. It was a good investment.
So back to 2016. It is hard to resist the temptation to jump in and start painting without much of a plan, so any little thing that will help might go a long way towards a more engaging piece. Here are some of Carol's tips that I have pulled out and pasted to my easel. For a better description with plenty of good photos, see her book.
Composition checklist from Carol Marine's Daily Painting
1. No two intervals of space or shape the same. ie. 3 tomatoes in a row of equal size, spacing. [Ever done this with trees? Clouds? Rocks? etc. Boring.]
2. Don't cut panel in half at horizon. [Equally boring.]
3. Objects should not touch sides of panel. [OK to go completely off, just not kiss edge.]
4. Rule of Thirds. Divide panel into 3's. Place center of interest at intersection.
5. No kissing objects. [Overlap, OK.]
6. No rows of objects. (i.e. tomatoes in a row)
7. Check corners for runoffs. (i.e. fork leading directly to corner)
8. Unfortunate tangents: objects touching a line (apples on edge of paper), objects in line with each other (top of glass same height as top of vase.)
9. If object flawed, pick something else. (Cherries with blight.)
She advocates using a viewfinder with the middle of each side marked (helps avoid the horizon issue, and helps locate masses in space.) I've taken it a step further, and made little notes about things to check as I am composing, and have invested in a Wimberley "Plamp" http://amzn.to/1TasViJ to hold the viewfinder clamped to the easel at the start of the painting. It all just might help!
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| Wimberley Plamp hooked on door frame. |
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