What is most important rule in art?

What is the Rule of Thirds? Composition is one of the most important factors in the success or failure of your art. You may create a work that is executed at the highest level of technical skill but if your composition is weak, then your art is too.

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What is the Rule of Thirds?

Composition is one of the most important factors in the success or failure of your art. You may create a work that is executed at the highest level of technical skill but if your composition is weak, then your art is too. In this lesson, we’ll explore a compositional theory that will help you make better decisions regarding your composition. This compositional theory is called “The Rule of Thirds”.

Using The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is best understood by analyzing a blank surface. This could be a sheet of drawing paper or your canvas. Basically, we’re considering the picture plane. We can divide the picture plane into segments using vertical and horizontal lines. Each imaginary line falls on the edge of one of the thirds. Placing important elements on any of these lines often leads to a more successful composition. For example, you may choose to place the horizon line in a landscape on either the upper horizontal line or the lower horizontal line.

But we can take this even further.

You’ll notice that the horizontal and vertical lines intersect. These locations of intersection are excellent places to position important elements within your composition. For example, you may place the focal point(s) on one of these intersecting points in order to create a more successful composition. Before we look several examples of how artists have used The Rule of Thirds in their art, let’s examine a few practical examples. We can imagine that these examples are potential references we may use for a drawing or a painting. Let’s see if we can improve the composition using The Rule of Thirds.

Example 1 – Landscape

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In our first example, we’ll take a look at a landscape. The composition of the unedited photo (below) is quite strong without any adjustments. The lighthouse, which is clearly the focal point, is positioned close to the center of the picture plane. The pathway leads our eyes to this location. Let’s try to improve it. Using The Rule of Thirds, we’ll crop the image and place a grid over the top. As you can see, we’ve now placed the lighthouse along the right vertical line. The base of the lighthouse is now positioned on one of the intersection points and the horizon line is in alignment with the lower horizontal line. But, there is a clear problem with this composition. It feels very heavy at the bottom. By moving the line where the land meets the water down, the sky is emphasized. In this image, the sky is rather bland and lacking visual interest. This is why this composition feels visually heavy at the bottom of the picture plane. This composition would work if there was more visual interest in the sky, but this image is lacking this. Let’s try again. Again we’ll crop the image using The Rule of Thirds. But this time, we’ll consider the visual weight of both the sky (light) and the ground (heavy). To balance the visual weight of these elements, we’ll include more of the ground and less of the sky. When we lay a grid over this composition, we can see that the lighthouse is in alignment with the right vertical line and meets the ground at one of the intersection points. We also see that the horizon line is alignment with the top horizontal line. The mound of rocks in the foreground also plays an important role in the composition. We can see that the rocks are now in alignment with another intersection point. As an added bonus, we’ve included the path, which acts as a guiding line, leading us to the focal point (the lighthouse). As a result, our second attempt at using The Rule of Thirds to improve our composition has succeeded. We can learn two things from this first example. First, The Rule of Thirds can improve your compositions. Secondly, we must consider other compositional aspects in order for it to work.

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